


Half Blood: Prisoner of Azkaban

by PostMortemPixie



Series: Half Blood [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Explicit Language, Listen death happens, Mild Gore, Of the Gore, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), POV Original Character, i just want you people to be aware, its not really that graphic, the mild gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-07
Updated: 2016-10-09
Packaged: 2018-08-07 08:16:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 60,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7707625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PostMortemPixie/pseuds/PostMortemPixie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maddy Mender returns to Hogwarts after a war with the titan of time, Kronos, to find that a mass murderer has escaped from prison</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Sour Return

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all, I have finally finished PoA, and I have uploaded the first two books onto wattpad, so you can find faceclaims there, the stories have the same name and my profile is PostMortemPixie! Also, warning chapter one is kinda angsty, so is two and 8 and then 9 is angst because how do you write dementors without angst after a war? Anyways, on we go, please enjoy!

" _L-L-L-Lara-Lara, please," Maddy stammered, holding her spear at the ready, a daughter of Nike dressed in full Greek battle armor, a long, heavy sword in hand standing in front of her, a determined smirk on her face. "Why are you doing this? You don't have to-"_

" _You don't need to know my reasons, but tell me, Madeline, what makes you think you can win this? It's you, a weak-skinned, unclaimed kid who_ forgot _to put on armor, against me, a daughter of the goddess of victory, fully armored and with more demigods_ and _the titans backing me up," Lara sneered._

" _For your information I'm not unclaimed anymore. I'm a daughter of Hades, so what's the daughter of a minor god against one of the Big Three?"_

" _Alright, let's see, goddess of victory versus the god of death," she lunged forward, Maddy dodged the attack, Lara's heavy sword grazing her unprotected arms. Lara attacked again and again, Maddy didn't. She was apprehensive about attacking, Lara used to be her friend before she inexplicably disappeared before Maddy had been claimed and she'd never attacked a fellow demigod before in a completely serious situation so she had no idea what her Stygian Iron spear would do to her. She knew it could be horrible for anyone who wasn't related to the Underworld in some way._

" _What? Afraid to hurt me?" Lara had managed to get behind Maddy and was holding her sword to her throat._

" _Maddy!" Maude had run over to the fighting duo, golden dust plainly visible against her prematurely grey hair. She had a deep gash running through the only part of her that she didn't have armor on, her face. Maddy's heart wrenched, she couldn't believe the way she had been acting towards her_ best friend _before. And it was such a stupid fight. "Put her down!" She yelled at Lara, a blood spattered knife with colourful sparks dancing around it up and at the ready._

 _Lara's grip on Maddy loosened a bit as she scoffed, "So_ you _want to fight me, huh, magic girl?"_

" _Damn right!" Maude ran forward, she grabbed Maddy's shoulder and somehow in the way that all three of them moved Maddy came out with an exceedingly painful and long wound on her back._

 _Maddy was pushed to the ground as Maude tried to find a way to effectively fight the daughter of Nike. She reached for her spear which was sitting a few feet away from her, she let out a gasp of pain and lurched back in a panic. There_ had _to be something she could do to help!_

_She concentrated hard on bringing up a skeleton army, Nico had done it, she could too! But she could only manage a few, she really needed to practice that more._

" _Help Maude!" She ordered the skeletons that she had managed to bring up, they marched forward, swords in hand. Maddy had expected Lara to be overwhelmed, but she wasn't, she was able to take down the skeletons almost effortlessly._

 _Maddy wasn't able to summon anymore, and her wand... her wand was broken, so she forced herself to get her spear, she pushed herself up to her legs, turning to face the fight just in time to see Lara's sword forcing it's way_ through _Maude's armor, lodging it in her stomach._

" _Maude!" Maddy collapsed beside her friend, ignoring Lara. Maude slowly blinked and looked at Maddy. Her eyes were glassy and unfocused. "Maude, listen, I'm sorry. I-I'll-" She stopped when she noticed Maude's lips moving, very slowly._

" _Maddy," her voice barely came out, she tried to continued but found that she couldn't, then her glassy black eyes went lifeless and she wasn't moving anymore. Maddy's ears rang as her best friend's life submerged into the Underworld._

" _Maude!" Maddy gripped her spear tight, turning her knuckles white. She furiously looked up at Lara, tears blurred her vision but she could plainly see the expression of malice and the glint of amusement in her eyes. She screamed at her, Lara remained quiet but picked up her sword and began to swing it. Maddy moved in order to get in a better position for sending her spear_ right at Lara's smug face _._

_Her knees firmly planted on the ground and twisting almost uncomfortably, Maddy lunged forward, Lara lunged too, she was aiming for Maddy's chest but Maddy moved out of the way just in time, instead getting a very deep gash across her shoulder. She screamed but continued moving forward._

* * *

Maddy woke up to the sound of her alarm clock buzzing, she was shivering and crying. She turned off her alarm and wiped her eyes and nose. She just couldn't get that battle out of her head no matter what, even mortal _and_ magical sleeping medicines didn't work, which meant she continuously woke up exhausted, distraught and horrendously angry. Angry at herself for utterly failing, angry at Lara, angry at Kronos, angry at Luke, angry at practically everything and everyone, just not Maude.

She tossed her alarm clock into her bag and pulled it up onto the bed with her, she pulled out a white collared shirt and some black pants and changed into those, careful with her arm, she'd broken it on top of that bone-deep gash and neither wound had finished healing, she carefully threw a sling on.

Maddy grabbed her bag and her new wand -aspen, unicorn hair, 10', this one was nearly white instead of painted black like her last one and she kind of liked this one better- and slowly stalked out of her rented room at the Leaky Cauldron, she had arrived two days previously to get her school supplies. She was planning to get some breakfast then leave for King's Cross Station.

When Maddy arrived downstairs in the pub she saw Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys were there. When did they arrive? She was conflicted about going over to sit with them and just getting some food on her own. She was kind of dreading meeting up with them, just for the fact that they would pester her about her new wound, they'd reacted pretty bad when they saw the wound over her eye the previous year.

"Maddy!" Ron suddenly exclaimed, Harry and Ron turned to face her as well.

"Oh, hey," she walked over to them and pulled a table up at the end of the table.

"When'd you get here?" Harry asked.

"A few days ago. You?"

"I've been here a few weeks, Hermione and Ron got here yesterday. Why haven't I seen you around?" Maddy shrugged, thinking about how she'd been avoiding everything and everyone when she wasn't shopping.

"What happened to your arm?" Hermione asked, concern lacing her voice.

"Uh, yeah," Maddy said slowly, "just the usual, I... fell over. It's fine." She made up, hoping that it was a convincing story. Hermione still seemed concerned but she didn't say anything.

"I saw Bella and Elliot about a week ago," Harry said. "They weren't travelling together, but they were here the same day."

"Oh," Maddy said, it seemed like Ron and Hermione had already heard this so the information was just directed towards her.

"What classes did you pick again?" Hermione asked.

"Divination and Study of Ancient Runes." Maddy had picked these two courses because she really wanted to show up Rachel for some reason and she chose Study of Ancient Runes because Ancient Greek would be involved in that course, apparently Greek and Latin were the two most studied languages in that class, so it was ideal for her.

"I thought you'd pick Care of Magical Creatures," Ron said. "You're always running around outside and that's the only class that's actually outside."

"Animals hate me."

"But Melinoe likes you, maybe there are some other animals that like you," Harry said.

"Only screech owls like me."

"Fang likes you."

"Fine, screech owls and hellhounds like me."

"Fang isn't a hellhound," Hermione said.

"No, trust me, he is."

The large group ate breakfast, then began to take their things to the Ministry provided cars, Maddy just waited by the door until Harry, Ron and Hermione had taken their last things out into the cars, then they crammed into one with Percy Weasley. Maddy was squeezed between Hermione and the door, which was rather uncomfortable, thankfully the ride was short.

"Really, it's very irresponsible to have your owl out like that," Percy said as he grabbed his own owl, Hermes, at King's Cross Station. Melinoe was perched on Maddy's head.

"No. It isn't," Maddy insisted.

"I know you believe that you have good control over her but you won't forever. You really should buy a cage for her."

"Percy, shut up," Ron sighed, which prompted a short rant from Percy about manners as they walked through the station.

"Right then," said upon arriving at the barrier between Platforms 9 and 10, glancing around them. "Let's do this in pairs, as there are so many of us. I'll go through first with Harry." strolled toward the barrier between platforms nine and ten, pushing Harry's trolley. With a meaningful look at Harry, he leaned casually against the barrier. Harry imitated him. In a moment, they had fallen sideways through the solid metal barrier.

Then Percy and Ginny went through, followed by Hermione and Ron, then Fred and George and finally Maddy and walked through.

Bella -who wasn't talking for some reason- and Elliot joined them on the platform and Maddy, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Bella, Elliot and Ginny got onto the train, looking for a compartment.

"I've got something to tell you guys," Harry said. "In private."

"Go away, Ginny," Ron said.

"Oh, that's nice," Ginny huffed and branched off from them and they got back to looking for a compartment. Unfortunately, all of the compartments were full except for one at the very end of the train with a sleeping man in it.

Elliot sat down beside the sleeping man, Hermione, Ron and Harry sat on the bench across from them and Bella and Maddy sat on the ground, Maddy leaning against the wall and Bella sat by the door.

"Who d'you reckon he is?" Ron asked, looking at the shabbily dressed wizard. Maddy didn't know who he was but he gave off a strange feeling, similar to Quirrell and Harry's scar but still vastly different, more like the feeling she got around monsters, but still different. Maybe she'd need to keep an eye on him even if he did appear deathly sick.

"Professor R. J. Lupin," Hermione said immediately.

"How d'you know that?" Harry asked.

"It's on his case," Elliot said and Hermione pointed at a brown case on the luggage rack above his head.

"Wonder what he teaches?" Ron asked, frowning at Professor Lupin's pallid profile.

"That's obvious," whispered Hermione. "There's only one vacancy, isn't there? Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"I hope he's better than Lockhart and Quirrell," Maddy said.

"Well, I think he'll definitely be worse than them _combined_ ," Elliot said. "Because it's completely possible to be worse than both an imposter writer who's completely full of himself as well as _completely_ useless _and_ the worst dark wizard who has ever lived."

"Well when you put it _that_ way."

"Sure, he can't be as bad as them but he doesn't look up to it," Ron said. "He looks like one hex could finish him off. Anyway, what were you going to tell us?" He turned to face Harry.

"Oh, right," Harry said. "Last night when I went to get Ron's rat tonic I overheard Mr and Mrs Weasley talking about Sirius Black. Apparently he got out to look for me." If Maddy remembered correctly, Sirius Black was a criminal who escaped from the wizard prison, Azkaban, but she didn't know what he was in for. From his picture in the Daily Prophet he looked quite mad, though.

"Sirius Black escaped to come after you?" Hermione asked. "Oh, Harry... you'll have to be really, really careful. Don't go looking for trouble, Harry-"

"I don't go looking for trouble," Harry responded irritably. "It just finds me."

"How thick would Harry have to be, to go looking for a nutter who wants to kill him?" said Ron shakily and Bella gave her a look as if to say 'honestly, Hermione'.

"What's he in for again?" Maddy asked and everyone turned to stare at her. "Incase all of you've forgotten, I live in America with a bunch of non magical people in an undetectable camp, so I'm not connected to wizard or English news."

"Sirius Black," Elliot began, "was imprisoned twelve years ago, just after Harry's parents were killed. It's said that he was You-Know-Who's right hand man and he killed thirteen people with one curse, and for one of those people only a finger was found."

"Damn."

"No one knows how he got out of Azkaban," said Ron uncomfortably. "And he was a top-security prisoner too."

"But they'll catch him, won't they?" said Hermione earnestly. "I mean, they've got all the Muggles looking out for him too..."

"What's that noise?" said Ron suddenly. A faint, tinny sort of whistle was coming from somewhere. They looked all around the compartment. "It's coming from your trunk, Harry," said Ron, standing up and reaching into the luggage rack. A moment later he had pulled a gold trinket out from between Harry's robes. It was spinning very fast in the palm of Ron's hand and glowing brilliantly.

"Is that a Sneakoscope?" said Hermione interestedly, standing up for a better look.

"Yeah... mind you, it's a very cheap one," Ron said. "It went haywire just as I was tying it to Errol's leg to send it to Harry."

"Were you doing anything untrustworthy at the time?" said Hermione shrewdly.

"No! Well... I wasn't supposed to be using Errol. You know he's not really up to long journeys... but how else was I supposed to get Harry's present to him?"

"Stick it back in the trunk," Harry advised as the Sneakoscope whistled piercingly, "or it'll wake him up." He nodded toward Professor Lupin. Ron stuffed the Sneakoscope into a pair of old socks, which deadened the sound, then closed the lid of the trunk on it.

"We could get it checked in Hogsmeade," said Ron, sitting back down. "They sell that sort of thing in Dervish and Banges, magical instruments and stuff. Fred and George told me."

"Do you know much about Hogsmeade?" asked Hermione keenly. "I've read it's the only entirely non-Muggle settlement in Britain-"

"That's true," Elliot nodded.

"But that's not why I want to go," Ron said. "I just want to get inside Honeydukes."

"What's that?" Hermione asked.

"It's this sweet shop," said Ron, a dreamy look coming over his face, "where they've got everything... Pepper Imps -they make you smoke at the mouth- and great fat Chocoballs full of strawberry mousse and clotted cream, and really excellent sugar quills, which you can suck in class and just look like you're thinking what to write next-"

"But Hogsmeade's a very interesting place, isn't it?" Hermione pressed on eagerly. "In _Sites of Historical Sorcery_ it says the inn was the headquarters for the 1612 goblin rebellion, and the Shrieking Shack's supposed to be the most severely haunted building in Britain-"

"-and massive sherbet balls that make you levitate a few inches off the ground while you're sucking them," said Ron, who was plainly not listening to a word Hermione was saying. Hermione looked around at the others.

"Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing the Shrieking Shack," Elliot said earnestly.

" _Why?_ " Ron asked, looking frightened.

"Why not?"

"Won't it be nice to get out of school for a bit and explore Hogsmeade?" Hermione interjected.

"'Spect it will," said Harry heavily. "You'll have to tell me when you've found out."

"What d'you mean?" said Ron.

"I can't go. The Dursleys didn't sign my permission form, and Fudge wouldn't either."

"I can't go either," Maddy said.

"Why?" Hermione asked.

"I, er... lost it," she lied. She'd actually forgotten about, what with the war and all. And then she also got caught up in an argument about making _somewhere_ they could commemorate the lives of the people who died in the war, with the help of Clarisse la Rue -this was the only thing they'd ever agreed on- a mortuary finally got built and those who died had their bodies preserved with magic in marble caskets. It actually didn't take long to get everyone in camp to agree with it, just a while for everyone to agree what exactly it should be like. "I also can't just turn in a permission slip signed as simply 'Chiron' or 'Mr.D' or 'Hades,' I highly doubt that would be accepted."

"I can't believe you two aren't going!" Ron exclaimed. "You must be able to get _someone_ to sign your forms. Like Professor McGonagall or Dumbledore!"

Suddenly, the compartment doors slid open, revealing Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. Maddy groaned. Why couldn't she just listen to the multitude of good music she'd discovered over the summer on the Ipod one of the children of Hecate had given her? She hadn't even _touched_ the amazing piece of muggle technology that now ran on magic so it could work in Hogwarts and other magic-heavy areas -and wouldn't attract monsters- that day.

"Well, look who it is," said Malfoy in his usual lazy drawl, pulling open the compartment door. "Potty and the Weasel." Crabbe and Goyle chuckled trollishly. "I heard your father finally got his hands on some gold this summer, Weasley," said Malfoy. "Did your mother die of shock? Oh, and Mender, what happened to your arm? Did you trip and break it?" He sneered. Ron stood so quickly Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, fell to the floor.

"Fight him, Ron," Maddy said quickly. "Make him _suffer_." Lupin gave a snort.

"Who's that?" said Malfoy, taking an automatic step backward as he spotted Lupin.

"New teacher," said Harry, who got to his feet, too. "What were you saying, Malfoy?"

Malfoy's pale eyes narrowed, he wasn't fool enough to pick a fight right under a teacher's nose. "C'mon," he muttered resentfully to Crabbe and Goyle, and they disappeared.

Harry and Ron sat back down.

"You should've listened to me," Maddy said.

"Get in a fight with Malfoy _right under a teacher's nose_?" Harry asked. "Are you mad?"

"No, I'm violent towards my enemies."

"I'm not going to take any crap from Malfoy this year," Ron said angrily. Maddy nodded approvingly. "I mean it. If he makes one more crack about my family, I'm going to get hold of his head and-" Ron made a violent gesture in midair.

"Perfect plan," Maddy said. "Make sure I'm there. I want to help."

"Ron! Maddy!" Hermione hissed. "Be careful!" She pointed to Lupin.

"I have lived through hell and I no longer fear death," Maddy said in both a solemn and joking way.

"Is that from something?" Elliot asked as she pulled a book out of her bag. "I feel like that's from something..."

"I don't think so... Now if you excuse me, I'm going to pretend none of you exist for the next seven hours," Maddy began shuffling around in her bag.

"What?" Harry asked.

"Why would you want to do that?" Elliot asked. "We're awesome!"

"Because I recently discovered lots of good music and I really don't feel like interacting with people right now," Maddy replied as she pulled out the Ipod and a pair of earbuds.

"I don't think those work here or in Hogwarts," Hermione pointed out.

"I got some children of Hecate to replace all the muggle technology that craps out around large amounts of magic with magic so it works in places like Diagon Alley and Hogwarts," Maddy explained and popped in the earbuds, not allowing her friends another chance to talk to her.

The already thick rain thickened as the Hogwarts Express spread northwards. The windows completely fogged over so they were impossible to see through, Maddy kept an eye on them to make sure there wasn't any lightning, she hated being outside of a stable building or Camp Half Blood when there was lightning. Eventually the lights began to flicker and the train started to slow to an eventual halt and Maddy pulled out one of her earbuds in time to hear Ron talk.

"Great," he said, getting up and walking carefully past Professor Lupin to try and see outside. "I'm starving. I want to get to the feast..."

"We can't be there yet," said Hermione, checking her watch.

"So why're we stopping?"

"Maybe it broke down?" Hermione suggested. Elliot gave an annoyed groan and slammed her book shut. Then, all the lights shut off.

"What's going on?" Ron asked.

"I bet it's because of the rain," Maddy said sourly.

"So you've returned to the land of those who exist," Ron noted and Maddy scowled at the red headed boy.

"Ouch!" gasped Hermione. "Ron, that was my foot!"

"Sorry!" He exclaimed. "And how does rain make lights stop working?"

"It happens all the time in the muggle world," Elliot pointed out. "But the lights here are different from muggle lights so I don't think the rain caused the blackout."

Ron stepped past Maddy and wiped away some of the fog on the window. "There's something moving out there," Ron said. "I think people are coming aboard..." The compartment door suddenly opened.

"Sorry, d'you know what's going on? Ouch! Sorry!"

"Hello, Neville."

"Harry? Is that you? What's happening?"

"No idea, sit down." There was a loud hissing and a yelp of pain.

"I'm going to go and ask the driver what's going on," came Hermione's voice. The door slid open again, and then a thud and two loud squeals of pain.

"Who's that?"

"Who's that?"

"Ginny?"

"Hermione?"

"What are you doing?"

"I was looking for Ron-"

"Come in and sit down-"

"Not here!" said Harry hurriedly. "I'm here!"

"Ouch!" said Neville.

"Be careful!" Maddy said as a foot hit her injured arm. "Horribly injured arm here! Incredibly painful!"

"Quiet!" said a hoarse voice suddenly. Everyone went dead silent. Lupin had woken up. There was a soft, crackling noise, and a shivering light filled the compartment. Professor Lupin appeared to be holding a handful of flames. They illuminated his tired, grey face, but his eyes looked alert and wary.

"Stay where you are," he instructed in the same hoarse voice, and he got slowly to his feet with his handful of fire held out in front of him. But the door slid slowly open before Lupin could reach it.

Standing in the doorway, illuminated by the shivering flames in Lupin's hand was a dark cloaked figure. Something dropped in Maddy's stomach and her blood ran cold. She noticed a dark, slimy-looking hand protruding from the cloak. It wasn't like anything Maddy had ever seen or heard of and it filled her with a deep sense of dread.

And then the thing beneath the hood, whatever it was, drew a long, slow, rattling breath, as though it were trying to suck something more than air from its surroundings. An intense cold swept over them all. Maddy suddenly felt as if she couldn't breath and it was almost as if something icey gold was clutching at her heart. Both of her hands clenched together, the one around the Ipod turned the volume up the small amount more it could go and, suddenly, she heard something all too familiar.

"Maddy!"

"So you want to fight me, huh, magic girl?"

"Damn right!"

Maddy felt herself being flung down to the ground, the long and deep cut on her back being made and then the yanking feeling in her gut as she raised a small army of skeletons. She relieved the experience of her ordering them to help Maude and the fear she felt as each skeleton was struck down.

Then, she felt the pain of lunging for her spear, and the horrible horrible feeling of sadness and anger as Maude let out a pain filled gasp as Lara's sword pushed through her armor. She cried and screamed, then turned to face her old friend. She lunged forward, ignoring the incredible pain of having everything between her flesh and her bone ripped apart.

There was a squelching sound as Maddy's spear made it's way through Lara's neck, black pustules began to form as Lara fought for breath that she would never be able to get. Maddy pulled back the spear and Lara fell into the blood of the battlefield that was Manhattan.

Someone was slapping her face. Hard.

Maddy opened her eyes. The lights were back on and the train was moving. Elliot was kneeling next to her, Maddy looked past her and saw Hermione and Ron looking at Harry who seemed to have just reentered consciousness, Bella sitting beside Maddy with a vacant expression that would sometimes drift over towards Maddy or Harry and suddenly become very worried, and Neville, Ginny and Professor Lupin were watching. Maddy could faintly hear the song ' _Shut Your Face_ ' by _Bratmobile_ coming from somewhere("... _Ask if it's a girl thing, yeah 'cause girls are dying..._ "), her earbuds must have fallen out.

"Are you okay?" Elliot asked. She didn't respond. "Ugh, Bella's going to stab me if I don't ask you more sternly. So, answer truthfully or I will pull you in the way of the blade when she tries to do so."

"I'm fine," Maddy grumbled.

"I don't believe you." Maddy narrowed her eyes at her friend and scowled.

"You were crying," Elliot said. Maddy quickly wiped her eyes and scowled some more. "I mean, Bella was pretty mich having a seizure -ow!" Bella had smacked her in the head. "Well that's what it looked like!" Bella scowled at her.

A loud snap made them all jump. Professor Lupin was breaking an enormous slab of chocolate into pieces. "Here," he said to Harry, Bella and Maddy, handing them each particularly large pieces. "Eat it. It'll help."

"What was that thing?" Harry asked as he took his slab of chocolate.

"A dementor," said Lupin, who was now giving chocolate to everyone else. "One of the dementors of Azkaban." Everyone stared at him. Professor Lupin crumpled up the empty chocolate wrapper and put it in his pocket. "Eat," he repeated. "It'll help. I need to speak to the driver, excuse me..." He swiftly exited the compartment.

"Are you okay, Maddy?" Hermione asked quickly. Maddy nodded.

"I don't get it... What happened?" Harry asked.

"The dementor just sort of stood there, and, and looked around -I mean, I think it looked around- and then you-you and Maddy and Bella just-" Hermione stammered.

"You and Bella went sort of rigid and fell out of your seats," Ron picked up. "We thought you were having a fit or something. You started twitching, you too, Maddy. Except you were crying too-"

"And Professor Lupin took out his wand and said to the dementor 'none of us is hiding Sirius Black under our cloaks' and then this sort of wispy thing came out of his wand and the dementor turned around and glided away," Hermione finished.

"It was terrible," Neville shook. "Did you feel how cold it got when it came in?"

"I felt weird," Ron nodded. "Like I'd never be happy again."

"It felt like," Elliot said fighting for a way to describe it. "Like my soul was being sucked out."

"It was," Maddy said.

"It was doing _what_?" Ron asked while Bella looked at her, wide eyed and terrified.

"Do you know about dementors?" Hermione asked. Maddy shook her head.

"No, but I know the feeling."

Before anyone could comment on this, Harry spoke. "But did anyone else hear screaming?" Everyone shook their heads.

"This is just a guess," Maddy began. "But I think the experience is individualised. I imagine that dementors make you relive your worst memory."

"But I didn't-" Ron began but was cut off by Lupin returning.

"I haven't poisoned that chocolate, you know," he said with a small smile. Maddy scowled down at the chocolate that was just beginning to melt in her hand. Sure, she loved chocolate almost as much as she loved caramel but she found that she just couldn't trust Lupin even if he was a teacher. She continued to stare at it as everyone else ate their pieces, eventually, she put it aside on the floor. Melinoe began to peck at it but stopped soon after and perched on the windowsill.

"I really haven't poisoned it," Lupin said. "It'll make you feel better."

"No offense, Professor, but I just don't take food from people I don't know," Maddy began riffling through her bag for some ambrosia.

"I understand but it is _very_ important that you eat it."

"Well, I don't need it," Maddy took a tiny piece of ambrosia off of the lump in her bag and pulled it out, then stuck it in her mouth. The taste of caramel washed over her senses as she warmed up.

"I've never seen anything like that," Lupin said curiously. "What is it?"

"It's, uh, muggle medicine," Maddy said, hoping he -or Neville and Ginny- wouldn't ask for any. "It's not sold at stores, it's a family recipe." She added since she had no idea if Lupin knew about muggle stuff or not, he could be muggleborn or just know a lot about muggle medicines. Maddy shut off her Ipod and placed it back in her bag.

The train drew to a stop, Lupin disappeared out of the compartment. Elliot put back her book and they left the train. Through the bustling of teenagers Maddy could hear Hagrid yelling out for the first years as they pushed their way through the students to a carriage.

' _Welcome, heiress!'_ one of the two skeletal horses pulling that carriage exclaimed, Maddy recognized him to be Midir, the horse from the previous year. ' _Kthonia! Greet the heiress!'_

' _Welcome back,'_ the female that was also there the previous year said half heartedly. ' _Midir, you better be quiet, you yammered my ears off on the way here.'_

Maddy got into the carriage as Midir protested Kthonia's statement. The child of the god of the Underworld sat down between Bella and Hermione on the side of the skeletal horses.

As they passed through the wrought iron gates to Hogwarts two dementors were guarding the entrance, she saw Harry pale and Bella begin to shake as she herself felt a wave of sickness engulfed her. They soon passed the dementors and Maddy began to feel fine again. The carriages stopped outside of the entrance to Hogwarts, they stepped out of their carriage and as Harry stepped down and began to help Maddy off a smug sneer came from behind them.

"You _fainted_ , Potter? Is Longbottom telling the truth? You actually fainted?" Nobody said anything as Malfoy stepped forward. "And you, Mender, you fainted _and_ _cried_? And you too, Nevra?"

"Shove off, Malfoy," said Ron, whose jaw was clenched.

"Did you faint as well, Weasley?" said Malfoy loudly. "Did the scary old dementor frighten you too, Weasley?"

Suddenly, Malfoy was on the ground, Bella stood over him with her face scrunched up in anger. She huffed and turned around moments later and began walking to the castle, Malfoy gaped after her with a hand on his jaw which was slowly turning purple and Maddy had no doubt in her mind that he would be going right to Snape and his father with this, Ron and Elliot were looking on with glee, Harry seemed conflicted but leaning towards the 'thank the gods someone finally did that' side and Hermione was staring in horror after the daughter of Bellona.

"Is there a problem?" said a mild voice. Professor Lupin had just gotten out of the next carriage.

"No, we're good here," Maddy said as Malfoy, who had gotten to his feet and had a look of disgust on his face, looked Lupin up and down.

"Oh, no, er, _Professor_ ," Malfoy said sarcastically. He smirked at Crabbe and Goyle who were flanking him and the trio walked off.

" _Bella_ ," Hermione hissed when they had caught up with said girl and as they walked away from Professor Lupin and up the stone stairs leading to the large, wooden doors that served as the main entrance to Hogwarts. Bella just gave her a 'seriously I don't care' look, crossed her arms and drew her lips tightly together.

" _You punched Malfoy with a teacher right there_." Bella just shrugged. "You'll get in trouble!"

"You are amazing," Elliot said. "If you punch Malfoy in front of a teacher again and I'll give you a galleon, three galleons if you do it in front of Snape."

"You _shouldn't_ do that!" Hermione exclaimed. Bella made a face that quite clearly expressed the sentiment of 'I do what I want' as she shook Elliot's hand to show that she agreed to the bet.

As they entered the Great Hall a stern voice called, "Potter! Granger! Mender! Nevra! I want to see you four!" Hermione smiled smugly with a face saying 'I told you so,' Bella pulled a face at her that involved sticking her tongue out. "There's no need to look so worried. I just want a word in my office," she told them. "Move along there, Weasley." Elliot hadn't stopped when the were called and, instead, continued walking, her face in a book.

Maddy, Bella, Harry and Hermione followed McGonagall to her office, where a welcoming fire was lit and she motioned for the four of them to sit. They sat, Harry on the far right, Hermione beside him, the Bella and then Maddy on the far left.

McGonagall settled herself behind her desk and abruptly said, "Professor Lupin sent an owl ahead to say that you three were taken ill on the train." She looked at Harry, Bella and Maddy. Before any of them could reply there was a knock at the door and Madam Pomfrey came barging in. She began making a fuss over both Harry, Bella and Maddy ("Of course it's you three.")

"We're fine," Harry said. "Really, Maddy, Bella and I are fine."

"I suppose you three were doing something ridiculously dangerous again," she said sternly.

"It was dementors, Poppy," McGonagall said.

"Setting dementors around a school," she muttered, simultaneously pushing back Harry's and Maddy's hair and feeling their foreheads and then she did the same to Bella. "They won't be the last ones who collapse. Yes, they're all clammy. Terrible things, they are, and the effect they have on people who are already delicate-"

"I'm not delicate!" said Harry crossly, Bella nodded in agreement.

"Of course you're not," said Madam Pomfrey absentmindedly, now taking Harry's pulse, then she took Maddy's and then Bella's.

"What do they need?" said Professor McGonagall crisply. "Bed rest? Should they perhaps spend tonight in the hospital wing?"

"I'm _fine_!" said Harry, jumping up.

"I'm fine too," Maddy grumbled, though she wasn't sure how convincing she was in the condition she was in.

"Well, they should have some chocolate, at the very least," said Madam Pomfrey, who was now trying to peer into their eyes.

"I've already had some," said Harry. "Professor Lupin gave me some. He gave it to all of us."

"Did he now?" said Madam Pomfrey approvingly. "So we've finally got a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher who knows his remedies? Oh, and Miss Mender, can I get a look at your arm? I can fix it up right now."

"It's fine," Maddy said. "It's already mostly healed."

"Are you three sure you're okay?" McGonagall asked.

" _Yes!_ " Harry exclaimed.

"We're completely fine and nowhere near death," Maddy said. Bella nodded in agreement.

"If you say so," McGonagall sighed. "Well. Kindly wait outside while I have a quick word with Miss Granger about her course schedule, then we can go down to the feast together." Harry and Maddy left McGonagall's office and waited by the door.

"What's with Hermione's schedule?" Maddy asked.

"She's taking every class that's offered," Harry sighed. Maddy snorted. He sent her an inquisitive look.

"Not even Annabeth would do that, that's how ridiculous that is."

"Uh, that girl from last year?"

"Yeah, she's an old friend back in America. She's super smart, smarter than Hermione. She's the person I contact for my information. She's a daughter of Athena." Bella made a face at this that looked like a cross between horror and disgust. "What?" Bella just stared at Maddy, seemingly unsure of how to convey her thoughts.

"Here," Harry handed her a piece of parchment and a quill. She quickly scribbled something out and held up the parchment.

_Minerva's a VIRGIN! She isn't supposed to have kids! What kind of backwards people ARE you Greeks?_

"That's real nice, Bella, real nice," Maddy said sarcastically. "Athena's also a virgin goddess how she has children is that they form in her mind and then just appear on someone's doorstep."

 _That's still messed up_ , Bella wrote after staring at Maddy with narrowed eyes for a good few minutes. Maddy just sighed in response.

Hermione exited McGonagall's office, followed by McGonagall who closed her office door. The five of them set off to the Great Hall, a little awkwardly as one of their professors was with them. When they entered the Great Hall they saw that Professor Flitwick was carrying away a stool and a frayed, pointed hat.

"Oh! We missed the Sorting!" Hermione exclaimed quietly.

"What a shame," Maddy said sarcastically, turning to the Slytherin table as Harry, Bella and Hermione joined Ron at the Gryffindor table.

"What was all that about?" Elliot asked as Maddy took a seat across from the lanky brunette.

"McGonagall heard about the dementors and she needed to see Hermione because there's something about her schedule."

"Oh right, she's taking _every_ class," Elliot rolled her eyes. "I don't know why anyone would subject themselves to that. I just picked the two easiest classes the won't get me mauled by animals and will anger my dad. A.K.A. Divination and Muggle Studies. And also a useful one." Maddy was about to ask what the useful class was but couldn't as Dumbledore stood up.

"Welcome!" Dumbledore suddenly began, stopping all conversation. "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! I have a few things to say to you all, and as one of them is very serious, I think it best to get it out of the way before you become befuddled by our excellent feast..." Dumbledore cleared his throat and continued, "As you will all be aware after their search of the Hogwarts Express, our school is presently playing host to some of the dementors of Azkaban, who are here on Ministry of Magic business." He paused, Maddy could tell he wasn't happy about that. "They are stationed at every entrance to the grounds, and while they are with us, I must make it clear that nobody is to leave school without permission. Dementors are not to be fooled by tricks or disguises, or even _Invisibility Cloaks_ ," he added clearly addressing Harry, Maddy wondered briefly if her ability to hide within shadows would work, but then decided that she wouldn't want to try to figure out and even if she did need to leave for any reason she could just shadow travel away.

"It is not in the nature of a dementor to understand pleading or excuses. I therefore warn each and every one of you to give them no reason to harm you. I look to the prefects, and our new Head Boy and Girl, to make sure that no student runs afoul of the dementors. On a happier note," he continued, "I am pleased to welcome two new teachers to our ranks this year.

"First, Professor Lupin, who has kindly consented to fill the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher." There was some scattered, rather unenthusiastic applause. Only those who had been in the compartment on the train with Professor Lupin clapped hard, Maddy only barely clapped -using her good hand with the table to do so- she still didn't entirely trust him. Professor Lupin looked particularly shabby next to all the other teachers in their best robes.

"As to our second new appointment," Dumbledore continued as the lukewarm applause for Professor Lupin died away. "Well, I am sorry to tell you that Professor Kettleburn, our Care of Magical Creatures teacher, retired at the end of last year in order to enjoy more time with his remaining limbs." Elliot snorted at this. "However, I am delighted to say that his place will be filled by none other than Rubeus Hagrid, who has agreed to take on this teaching job in addition to his gamekeeping duties." There was tumultuous applause at the Gryffindor table in particular.

"That explains the carnivorous book Harry, Ron, Hermione and Bella got," Elliot noted. "Hagrid's the only one nuts enough to get a book that can eat you."

"Well, I think that's everything of importance," said Dumbledore once the applause died down. "Let the feast begin!"

The golden plates and goblets before them filled suddenly with food and pumpkin juice, everyone began piling their plates high, Maddy only got a little bit of food, she didn't normally have much of an appetite but she'd found that it had decreased considerably over the summer.

Elliot and Maddy stayed quiet as they ate, Elliot reading once again and Maddy was listening to music. Elliot pulled out Maddy's earbuds and told her it was time to go to the dormitories. Maddy noticed their Gryffindor friends talking to Hagrid at the staff table.

They arrived at the entrance to the Slytherin common room at the same time as a prefect, Marcus Flint, arrive and said that password -Merlin- Elliot sighed in relief and grinned, Maddy was glad the password wasn't something horrible for once.

Maddy went straight to her dormitory and collapsed onto her bed, closing the green hangings and changing into her dark pyjamas. She stayed there, somehow completely still, song after song pounding in her ears as she tried not to go to sleep.


	2. Death Omens Aren't Real

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 2, as a warning I have not edited it... my depression and anxiety are messing with me so I find everything to be just so horribly boring and I am panicking about school starting back already even though it doesn't start again until the 29th and I am no longer looking forward to it ;-;

More bad dreams.

Lara.

Maude.

The spear.

Maude.

Blood.

Maude.

A disgusting squelch.

Maude...

Loud _thumps_ of bodies hitting the ground.

_Maude..._

The roar of battle.

_Maude..._

Pain.

Maddy had had enough but couldn't make any of it go away. What could she do? She wouldn't go to Madam Pomfrey about it, absolutely not. She didn't know any silencing spells. There was nothing for her to do but lay there and cry and remember and take it.

She shut off her alarm clock before it woke anyone else up and pulled out her Divination book, she'd set her alarm clock for an early-ish time so her nightmares wouldn't get out of hand. She sat for a while, her book open but not really paying attention, her mind was always wandering and this meant that she had to mentally scream at herself to _just fucking stop_. She thought about Iris Messaging Annabeth, Percy or Nico but then she remembered that stupid time change. None of them would be awake, Hades most of the Slytherins weren't awake yet and they were five hours ahead!

At seven Elliot slid Maddy's hangings open and lazily drawled, with closed eyes, "You better get up without a fight for once."

"Do I _not_ get up without a fight?" Maddy asked and Elliot's eyes snapped open.

"No, you're a nightmare. It takes forever and you have punched me multiple times. So, you _finally_ got an alarm clock along with that muggle contraption that somehow works here?"

"Yes, I did and I already said it was a kid of Hecate -the goddess of magic- that put like a little anti-magic shield thing around it."

"That sounds a little counterintuitive, but whatever," Elliot yawned and stretched. "Let's get to breakfast. Maybe I'll wake up completely."

"Yeah, okay..." Maddy sighed despondently as she pulled on the hair resting across her injured eye. Elliot had left the room, Maddy got up, got dressed and met up with her in the common room to get to breakfast.

Once in the Great Hall the pair picked up their timetables from Snape and sat at the Gryffindor table, the entire third year population of Slytherins were being more insufferable than usual and they really didn't care about points anyway so they might as well sit with people they actually liked.

"Ignore him, just ignore him," Hermione was saying to Harry and Bella as the two Slytherins sat down with the Gryffindors. Maddy followed their gaze and saw that he was glaring Malfoy, who was doing a grossly over exaggerated reenactment of someone apparating seizing up and falling over while Parkinson and Davis was doing the same with loud cries of fake despair, though Davis was miming the actions.

"What an asshole," Maddy said and began filling her plate.

"What're you two doing here?" Ron asked.

"Not caring," Elliot replied and shoved a pancake into her mouth.

"Hey, Potter! Nevra!" Parkinson suddenly shrieked. "The Dementors are coming, Potter! Woooooooooo! Better watch out, Nevra! You too, Mender!" Bella suddenly slammed her utensils on the floor and stood up.

"Bella!" Hermione exclaimed. "What're you doing?"

In response Bella began to move her hands in what was most likely sign language. To everyone's mild surprise Elliot then replied with some other hand movements and then said, "Don't you fucking dare try to stop her," as Bella marched over to the green and silver table. Hermione immediately shot up and ran over to the daughter of Bellona and grabbed her shoulder. Maddy watched as Bella flinched away, glared at Hermione as she tried to talk to her and then stormed out of the Great Hall. Hermione returned with an irritated huff of breath and she immediately opened up a rather large book, staring at the dark recesses of the spine of the book instead of actually reading.

"Okay, what in the hell was that?" Harry asked. Hermione simply harrumphed.

"Mione," Ron started, "please?"

"I'm ninety-eight percent sure that it was obscene," Elliot said. Hermione made a sound of confirmation. "Did she write it or use a gesture?"

"She wrote it..." Hermione said. "And I won't say what she wrote!"

"What did you say to her?" Harry asked.

"That she was being immature, that nothing is solved by fighting and I asked her what she thought she was going to do if she wasn't going to physically fight them," she replied definitely.

"Okay, first of all," Maddy began, "violence solves everything. Now, secondly, where do you think Bella will go?"

"Outside probably," Harry said.

"She has Divination first, she might go there since it's so far away," Ron added.

"Okay, Elliot, you're coming with me," Maddy grabbed Elliot's arm and began to drag her.

"Oh, wait! Why? What? Where are we going? Why do you want me?" Elliot exclaimed.

"You're going to help me, we're going to the North Tower first."

"But I have Arithmancy first! Maddy, don't make me go all the way up there! Arithmancy's across the entire school from there!"

"Too bad, wait you took the two easiest classes and Arithmancy?" Maddy asked.

"Arithmancy's useful, Maddy, don't you ever think about your future?"

"No," Maddy replied blankly as if the thought of thinking that far ahead was absurd and to her it kind of was. "Now come on."

Maddy began to pull Elliot along and the taller girl began to put all her energy into not being pulled along but it wasn't working. "Why are you so fucking strong!" She exclaimed in defeat.

"I grew up literally fighting people with naturally enhanced strength, anyone would be strong."

The two Slytherins wandered around the school until they found Bella, sitting by a window and just starting out of it with a wistfully sad expression.

"Alright, we find her, can I go now?" Elliot asked. "Why did you even want me to come with you?"

"Because you both know sign language for some reason and it'll be quicker and easier if you just translate what she's saying, now kindly shut it," Maddy replied and moved to sit down beside the uncharacteristically melancholy redhead, who had begun to make a series of hand movements without looking over at them.

"She says it's fine and I can go," Elliot said. "So, coinciding that, goodbye!" She was gone in a mere second.

"Are you okay, Bella?" Maddy asked and the girl in question pulled out a small notepad and quill.

' _Yeah, just great_ ,' she replied and Maddy could tell she was being sarcastic.

"I'm sorry, and I don't really understand what exactly it was that Hermione said that set you off but I'm getting an idea of what could have happened. You don't have to answer if you don't want to, I'm just speculating but I think I might understand what's going on."

' _Go on_ ,' Bella wrote.

"Did the Romans have a war too?"

Bella's eyes almost immediately began to water but she set her face, held the threatening tears back and wrote, ' _We can talk about it later_.'

"Okay," Maddy nodded and stood up as the sound of approaching footsteps echoed from further down the tower. Bella stood as well and began to, almost obsessively, straighten her shirt, robes and skirt as well as messing with her curly hair.

Harry, Ron and Hermione turned the corner and Hermione breathed a sigh of relief and said, "There you are, listen, Bella, I'm sorry about what I said."

' _It's okay, I overreacted... We should go ahead and get to class, I haven't seen anyone else come by this way so we might be in the wrong place._ '

"Yeah, we didn't see anyone come down here either," Harry said, "but this _is_ the North Tower, right?"

"I think so," Ron replied and Hermione nodded.

"Maybe it's in a different part of the tower?" Maddy suggested and eventually they began to look around the tower to find their Divination classroom. After wandering around for a good half hour Hermione asked a painting of a knight riding a pony named Sir Cadogan and everyone was ready to at least hit something after five minutes of following him through the castle while he shouted, 'onwards, valiant knights! On! On! On!' over and over again until they got to the North Tower, which they had apparently not been in, they had been in the Slight West North Tower which was more north and slightly west of their destination.

Puffing loudly, Harry, Ron, and Hermione, followed by two demigods who were not exhausted but very aggravated, climbed the tightly spiraling steps, getting dizzier and dizzier, until at last they heard the murmur of voices above them and knew they had reached the classroom.

"Farewell!" cried the knight, popping his head into a painting of some sinister looking monks. "Farewell, my comrades-in-arms! If ever you have need of noble heart and steely sinew, call upon Sir Cadogan!"

"Yeah, we'll call you," muttered Ron as the knight disappeared, "if we ever need someone mental."

They climbed the last few steps and emerged onto a tiny landing, where most of the class was already assembled. There were no doors off this  
landing, but Ron nudged Harry and pointed at the ceiling, where there was a circular trapdoor with a brass plaque on it.

"'Sibyll Trelawney, Divination teacher,"' Harry read. "How're we supposed to get up there?" As though in answer to his question, the trapdoor suddenly opened, and a  
silvery ladder descended right at Harry's feet. Everyone got quiet.

"After you," said Ron, grinning, so Harry climbed the ladder first. Ron followed, then Hermione, Maddy hanged back and Bella waited with her while the others flooded up into the classroom.

"We're so high up I bet if I jumped Zeus would kill me," Maddy muttered. "Even though I helped save Olympus, stupid drama que-" thunder suddenly shook the building. "You see?" Bella gave her a face that communicated something along the lines of a sympathetic 'really, Maddy?' before they both started to climb that ladder, joining their friends in the high classroom.

Maddy was immediately reminded of the attic that the Oracle of Delphi used to live in if she actually got to decorate it, it had a real sixties vibe or whenever it was that hippies were things, this memory, of course, brought sadness to Maddy because the only time she had ever been in the attic of he Big House was with Maude. She tried her best to shake herself out of the oncoming stupor before she was in too deep and instead focused on the smaller details of the room. At least twenty small, circular tables were crammed inside it, all surrounded by chintz armchairs and fat little poufs. Everything was lit with a dim, crimson light; the curtains at the windows were all closed, and the many lamps were draped with dark red scarves. it was stiflingly warm, and the fire that was burning under the crowded mantelpiece was giving off a heavy, sickly sort of perfume as it heated a large copper kettle. The shelves running around the circular walls were crammed with dusty looking feathers, stubs of candles, many packs of tattered playing cards, countless silvery crystal balls, and a huge array of teacups.

"This was a mistake," Maddy muttered instantly.

"Where is she?" Ron asked, craning his neck around the room in search of the professor.

A voice suddenly came out of the shadows, misty, light and distant. "Welcome. How nice to see you in the physical world at last." Maddy immediately got the impression that she was trying to hard with the many necklaces and rings she wore, to her eccentric, colourful outfit completed with a shawl.

"She's a sham, I'm calling it," Maddy whispered.

" _Shh_ ," Hermione hushed her.

"Sit, my children, sit," she said, and they all climbed awkwardly into armchairs or sank onto poufs. Harry, Ron, Maddy, Bella, and Hermione sat themselves around the same round table.

"Welcome to Divination," said Professor Trelawney, who had seated herself in a winged armchair in front of the fire. "My name is Professor Trelawney. You may not have seen me before. I find that descending too often into the hustle and bustle of the main school clouds my Inner Eye."

Nobody said anything to this extraordinary pronouncement except for Maddy, who very quietly said, " _Shaaaaaaaam_."

Professor Trelawney delicately rearranged her shawl and continued, "So you have chosen to study Divination, the most difficult of all magical arts. I must warn you at the outset that if you do not have the Sight, there is very little I will be able to teach you... Books can take you only so far in this field..."

At these words, both Harry and Ron glanced, grinning, at Hermione, who looked startled at the news that books wouldn't be much help in this subject, neither Maddy nor Bella were that surprised by this.

"Many witches and wizards, talented though they are in the area of loud bangs and smells and sudden disappearances, are yet unable to penetrate the veiled mysteries of the future," Professor Trelawney went on, her enormous, gleaming eyes moving from face to nervous face. "It is a Gift granted to few. You, boy," she said suddenly to Neville, who almost toppled off his pouf. "Is your grandmother well?"

"I think so," said Neville tremulously.

"I wouldn't be so sure if I were you, dear," said Professor Trelawney, the firelight glinting on her long emerald earrings. Neville gulped. Professor Trelawney continued placidly. "We will be covering the basic methods of Divination this year. The first term will be devoted to reading the tea leaves. Next term we shall progress to palmistry. By the way, my dear," she shot suddenly at Parvati Patil, "beware a red-haired man."

Parvati gave a startled look at Ron, who was right behind her and edged her chair away from him while looking ready to judo flip him if he even moved.

"In the second term," Professor Trelawney went on, "we shall progress to the crystal ball - if we have finished with fire omens, that is.  
Unfortunately, classes will be disrupted in February by a nasty bout of flu. I myself will lose my voice. And around Easter, one of our number  
will leave us forever." A very tense silence followed this pronouncement, but Professor  
Trelawney seemed unaware of it.

"I wonder, dear," she said to Lavender Brown, who was nearest and shrank back in her chair, "if you could pass me the largest silver teapot?" Lavender, looking relieved, stood up, took an enormous teapot from the shelf, and put it down on the table in front of Professor Trelawney.

"Thank you, my dear. Incidentally, that thing you are dreading - it will happen on Friday the sixteenth of October." Lavender trembled.

"Now, I want you all to divide into pairs. Collect a teacup from the shelf, come to me, and I will fill it. Then sit down and drink, drink until only the dregs remain. Swill these around the cup three times with  
the left hand, then turn the cup upside down on its saucer, wait for the last of the tea to drain away, then give your cup to your partner to read. You will interpret the patterns using pages five and six of _Unfogging the Future_. I shall move among you, helping and instructing. Oh, and dear-" she caught Neville by the arm as he made to stand up "-after you've broken your first cup, would you be so kind as to select one of the blue patterned ones? I'm rather attached to the pink."

Sure enough, Neville had no sooner reached the shelf of teacups when there was a tinkle of breaking china. Professor Trelawney swept over to him holding a dustpan and brush and said, "One of the blue ones, then, dear, if you wouldn't mind... thank you..."

"See, Maddy? She got that," Ron said, "so why d'you think she's a sham?"

"Because, Ronald, she just is, you can tell she tries too hard, the 'Inner Eye' isn't a thing and you can't just _make_ predictions all of a sudden, they come out of nowhere and don't actually happen a lot. I blame that on the power of suggestion, Neville got nervous he was going to drop the cup, started shaking and actually did drop the cup. Also that thing about his grandma probably added to it, now, let's get that tea."

Maddy filled up her blue cup with Bella, whom she had paired up with while Harry and Ron paired together and Hermione was paired with Neville. She drained her cup of tea, grimacing at the unpleasant taste that she wasn't expecting, she'd always figured that tea would probably taste pretty good but no, she was finally figuring out that it was awful.

Maddy and Bella shortly swapped their cups and Maddy went first at trying to decipher the dregs of her friend's tea. She flipped open _Unfogging the Future_ and cast the spell to make her translate English into Greek and began to examine the cup.

"Okay, so this looks like a parrot -I swear to the gods, if this is something about mimicking - okay, no that means you're going to meet either a person whose home is the sea or owns something colourful. That is incredibly vague, good thing I know this is all fake as shit..."

' _Really,'_ Bella agreed, ' _we don't even get to do any REAL divination.'_

"Divination's all fake though, you have to be either blessed by Apollo or be inhabited by the Oracle of Delphi."

' _You Greeks are so weird, what kind of messed up rule is that? You don't have Augury?'_

"What's Augury?"

' _Reading animal intestines for prophecies. Camp Jupiter always has an Augur. Our current one's a sadistic arsehole though.'_

"You call us backwards when you read animal intestines? Nevermind, you've also got a sort of sun thing, so you're going to be happy about meeting that person from the sea. And then this... amorphic blob means... there isn't an amorphic blob in this book so I'm just going to say that you're going to melt into an amorphic blob because of that person from the sea and you're happy about it. The end, sounds like a very full life, Bella."

' _Thank you.'_ Bella wrote.

"Now you also have what looks to be a monkey, something about playfulness, blah blah blah, whatever and also a... is that an Emposai? Okay, there aren't any Emposai in this book or humans, on second thought it could be a llama..."

_'How do you go from a human to a llama?'_

"I don't know, what does mine say?"

' _You have what looks like a rabbit which means that you're going to be brutally attacked.'_

"Wait, hold up. A _rabbit_? A _rabbit_ means I'm going to be brutally attacked? A fucking _bunny? What?_ " Maddy asked and Bella shrugged.

' _Apparently. Now you also have a leaf I think which means you'll get lots of money but I'm taking it to mean you're going to turn into a tree.'_

"I am a tree."

 _'The tree-iest tree who very treed,'_ Bella agreed with a nod.

"The falcon... my dear, you have a deadly enemy." Trelawney was saying to Harry, staring into his teacup.

"But everyone knows that, " said Hermione in a loud whisper. Professor Trelawney stared at her.

"Well, they do," said Hermione. "Everybody knows about Harry and You-Know-Who."

Harry, Ron, Maddy and Bella stared at her with a mixture of amazement and admiration. They had never heard Hermione speak to a teacher like that before.

Professor Trelawney chose not to reply. She lowered her huge eyes to Harry's cup again and continued to turn it. "The club... an attack. Dear, dear, this is not a happy cup..."

"I thought that was a bowler hat," said Ron sheepishly.

"The skull... danger in your path, my dear..."

Everyone was staring, transfixed, at Professor Trelawney, who gave the cup a final turn, gasped, and then screamed.

There was another tinkle of breaking china; Neville had smashed his second cup. Professor Trelawney sank into a vacant armchair, her glittering hand at her heart and her eyes closed.

"My dear boy... my poor, dear boy no it is kinder not to say... no... don't ask me..."

"What is it, Professor?" Dean Thomas asked at once. Everyone had got to their feet, and slowly they crowded around Harry and Ron's table,  
pressing close to Professor Trelawney's chair to get a  
good look at Harry's cup.

"My dear," Professor Trelawney's huge eyes opened dramatically, "You have the Grim."

"The what?" said Harry.

At least Maddy wasn't the only one who was confused, Dean Thomas shrugged at Harry and Lavender Brown looked puzzled, but nearly  
everybody else clapped their hands to their mouths in horror, Bella had simply rolled her eyes at the proclamation.

"The Grim, my dear, the Grim!" cried Professor Trelawney, who looked shocked that Harry hadn't understood. "The giant, spectral dog that  
haunts churchyards! My dear boy, it is an omen -the worst omen- of death!"

Maddy rolled her eyes. The only death omens were the Fates cutting a string.

"I don't think it looks like a Grim," Hermione, who was now standing behind Trelawney and looking into the cup, said flatly.  
Professor Trelawney surveyed Hermione with mounting dislike.

"You'll forgive me for saying so, my dear, but I perceive very little aura around you. Very little receptivity to the resonances of the future." Seamus Finnigan was tilting his head from side to side.

"It looks like a Grim if you do this," he said, with his eyes almost shut, "but it looks more like a donkey from here," he said, leaning to the left.

"Yeah, no," Maddy added in. "That's definitely a donkey. Oh, hold on, what do you see here? Bella and I are having trouble deciphering it," she handed the professor her cup.

"Ah, the elephant, something looms over you, my dear," Trelawney said after a moment, then turned the cup. "The feather, a small change could cause great chaos in your life. And-" she gasped." Another Grim!"

"I'm pretty sure that one's a cat..." Maddy replied, taking both her cup and Harry's. "Do these two things look like the Grim?" She asked Bella and Ron. "I'm pretty sure it's a donkey and a cat."

 _'They look like amorphic blobs,'_ Bella wrote.

"I think they might be the Grim..." Ron replied a little sheepishly as he squinted at the cup.

"When you've all finished deciding whether I'm going to die or not!" Harry exclaimed, taking even himself by surprise. Now nobody seemed to want  
to look at him.

"I think we will leave the lesson here for today," said Professor Trelawney in her mistiest voice. "Yes... please pack away your things..."

Silently the class took their teacups back to Professor Trelawney, packed away their books, and closed their bags.

"Until we meet again," said Professor Trelawney faintly, "fair fortune be yours. Oh, and dear-" she pointed at Neville "-you'll be late next time, so mind you work extra-hard to catch up."

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Bella and Maddy descended down the latter and began to make their way to the Gryffindor-Slytherin Transfiguration lesson.

"Harry," Ron said in a low, serious voice, "You haven't seen a great black dog anywhere, have you?"

"Yeah, I have," said Harry. "I saw one the night I left the Dursleys'."

"Probably a stray," said Hermione calmly.

"Listen, Harry," Maddy said, "you won't die, death omens aren't real unless you see the Fates cutting a string. Also, the closest possible time of death for you is next year but that's just a small chance."

"What?" Harry asked.

"Daughter of Hades, I can see vague lifelines, basically the possibilities for death and how likely it is."

"But the Grim _is_ a real death omen," Ron said. "My uncle Bilius saw one and twenty-four hours later he died!"

"Coincidence," said Hermione airily.

"You don't know what you're talking about!" said Ron, starting to get angry. "Grims scare the living daylights out of most wizards!"

"There you are, then," said Hermione in a superior tone. "They see the Grim and die of fright. The Grim's not an omen, it's the cause of death! And Harry's still with us because he's not stupid enough to see one and think, right, 'well, I'd better kick the bucket then!'"  
Ron mouthed wordlessly at Hermione.

"I think Divination seems very woolly," she said, searching for her page. "A lot of guesswork, if you ask me."

"There was nothing woolly about the Grim in that cup!" said Ron hotly.

"You didn't seem quite so confident when you were telling Harry it was a sheep."

"I have no clue what 'woolly' means buy from the way you're using it I completely agree," Maddy said. "Like I was saying, Trelawney's a sham, I actually know the person who houses the Oracle of Delphi and let me tell you, that's not how seeing the future works, you can't just pull it out of thin air, it comes to you as a full blown prophecy not 'you're going to be late.'"

 _'There's Augury too. We get prophecies from that,'_ Bella wrote out.

"And Augury works for the Romans apparently. But it's none of that tea leaves, christal balls and palmestry bullshit you read animal intestines instead." Ron, Harry and Hermione made a face at that. "The point is that Divination is a load of crap."

"Yes, that lesson was absolute rubbish compared to my Arithmancy class," Hermione agreed.

"When did you go to Arithmancy?" Harry asked.

"When it happened, honestly, Ronald."

This was when they walked into the Transformation classroom just in time, sitting down at the table that Elliot had claimed. During the entire lesson the rest of the class who had been in Divination kept  
shooting furtive glances at Harry and Maddy, as though they were about to drop dead at  
any moment. Maddy found paying attention harder than usual simply because Elliot kept on trying to ask what had gotten into everyone and Harry didn't seem to be able to concentrate on the lecture about Animagi either.

"Really, what has got into you all today?" said Professor McGonagall, turning back into herself from the tabby cat she hat changed into with a faint pop, and staring around at them  
all. "Not that it matters, but that's the first time my transformation's not got applause from a class."

Everybody's heads turned toward Harry again, but nobody spoke. Then Hermione raised her hand and said, "Please, Professor, we've just had our first Divination class, and we  
were reading the tea leaves, and-"

"Ah, of course," said Professor McGonagall, suddenly frowning. "There is no need to say any more, Miss Granger. Tell me, which of you  
will be dying this year?" Everyone stared at her.

"Me," said Harry, finally.

"Also me," Maddy added nonchalantly. "I don't believe any of it, Professor Trelawney said she saw the Grim in each of our cups when it was clearly a donkey and a cat."

" , you should take a page out of Miss Mender's book and stop worrying about it. And you should know, Potter, that Sibyll Trelawney has predicted the death of at least one student a year since she arrived at this school. None of  
them has died yet. Seeing death omens is her favorite way of greeting a new class. If it were not for the fact that I never speak ill of my colleagues-" Professor McGonagall broke off, and they saw that her nostrils had gone white. She went on, more calmly, "Divination is one of the most imprecise branches of magic. I shall not conceal from you that I have very little patience with it. True Seers are very rare, and Professor  
Trelawney-" She stopped again, and then said, in a very matter-of-fact tone, "You look in excellent health to me, Potter, so you will excuse me if I don't  
let you off homework today. I assure you that if you die, you need not hand it in."

Hermione, Bella and Maddy laughed and McGonagall proceeded with the lesson.

After Transfiguration was lunch, Elliot and Maddy sat with the Gryffindors again until Snape came around and made them go to the Slytherin table.

"You know what's confusing me," Elliot began after they sat at the green and silver table. "Hermione was in my Arithmancy class but she was also in your Divination class..."

"Yeah that is weird... we should ask her about it," Maddy said. "What class do you have next?"

"Divination, you?"

"Free period, I was thinking of accompanying Harry, Ron, Bella and Hermione to Care of Magical Creatures just to see if I want to take it because I am not staying in Divination, no way."

"Well, have fun with that, don't make the animals run away, or do and release them in the school that might be fun. Anyway, I'm going to stay in Divination, it sounds like I can just say, 'there's a death omen in there,' and pass. Easy. Speaking of Divination, I should get going. See you." With that Elliot stood up, waved lazily and walked away.

Maddy stood up and walked over to the Gryffindor table again, where Hermione was no longer sitting she sat down.

"Where's Hermione?"

"She stormed away," Harry said, he was staring at the door.

"Oh, okay. When are you leaving for Care of Magical Creatures because I'm joining you."

"When I'm done eating," Ron said through a mouthful of food.

 _'Are you coming with us?'_ Bella asked and Maddy nodded in confirmation.

"I've got a free period and I need a class to replace Divination because I have decided to leave that class."

When they got outside they found that the previous day's rain had cleared; the sky was a clear, pale gray, and the grass was springy and damp underfoot as they set off for their first ever Care of Magical  
Creatures class. Ron and Hermione weren't speaking to each other.

"So, what happened, why aren't they speaking?" Maddy asked Bella.

' _They had another argument about Divination,'_ she replied.

"Wow."

The four of them -Hermione was walking ahead of them- walked down to Hagrid's hut at the edge of the forbidden forest. They were all displeased to find that Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Parkinson and Davies also had the class.

Hagrid was waiting for his class at the door of his hut. He stood in his moleskin overcoat, with Fang the hellhound at his heels, looking impatient to start.

"C'mon, now, get a move on!" he called as the class approached. "Got a real treat for you today! Great lesson coming up! Everyone here? Right, follow me!"

Everyone followed and five minutes later, they found themselves outside a kind of paddock. There was nothing in there.

"Everyone gather around the fence here!" he called. "That's it -make sure yeh can see- now, first thing you'll want ter do is open yer books-"

"How?" said the cold, drawling voice of Draco Malfoy.

"Eh?" said Hagrid.

"How do we open our books?" Malfoy repeated. He took out his copy of _The Monster Book of Monsters_ , which he had bound shut with a length of rope. Other people took theirs out too; some had belted their book shut; others had crammed them inside tight bags or clamped them together with binder clips.  
"Hasn't - hasn't anyone been able to open their books?" said Hagrid, looking crestfallen. The class all shook their heads. "You've got to stroke them," said Hagrid, as though this was the most obvious thing in the world. "Look-" He took Hermione's copy and ripped off the Spellotape that bound it. The book tried to bite, but Hagrid ran a giant forefinger down its spine, and the book shivered, and then fell open and lay quiet in his hand.

"Oh, how silly we've all been!" Malfoy sneered. "We should have stroked them! why didn't we guess!"

"I - I thought they were funny," Hagrid said uncertainly to Hermione.

"Oh, tremendously funny!" said Malfoy. "Really witty, giving us books that try and rip our hands off!"

"Shut up, Malfoy," said Harry quietly. Hagrid was looking downcast.

"Right then," said Hagrid, who seemed to have lost his thread, "so - so you've got your books and - and - now yeh need the Magical Creatures.  
Yeah. So I'll go an' get 'em. Hang on... " He strode away from them into the forest and out of sight.

"God, this place is going to the dogs," said Malfoy loudly. "That oaf teaching classes, my father'll have a fit when I tell him."

"Shut up, Malfoy," Harry repeated.

"Careful, Potter, there's a dementor behind you." Malfoy drawled and yelped when Maddy punched him in the arm. " _Mender_ -!"

"Oooooooh!" squealed Lavender Brown, pointing toward the opposite side  
of the paddock. Trotting toward them were a dozen of the most bizarre creatures Maddy had ever seen, which was saying something. They had the bodies, hind legs, and tails of horses, but the front legs, wings, and heads of what seemed to be giant eagles, with cruel, steel-colored beaks and large, brilliantly, orange eyes. The talons on their front legs were half a foot long and deadly looking. Each of the beasts had a thick leather collar around its neck, which was attached to a long chain, and the ends of all of these were held in the vast hands of Hagrid, who came jogging into the paddock behind the  
creatures.

"Get up, there!" he roared, shaking the chains and urging the creatures toward the fence where the class stood. Everyone drew back slightly as  
Hagrid reached them and tethered the creatures to the fence.

"Hippogriffs!" Hagrid roared happily, waving a hand at them. "Beautiful, aren't they?"

"More like terrifying, I'm actually going to die," Maddy said quietly as Bella quickly scribbled something down on her notepad.

"Why are you going to die?" Ron asked.

"It is a horse-eagle, the symbols of my uncles, they will kill me and thy will feel no guilt both because they don't have the mental capacity for it and because my uncles basically want me dead!"

' _I think they're beautiful, imagine rising into battle on one. All the enemy hears is a high shriek and suddenly all hell breaks loose and they're being attacked by people flying on hippogriffs, shooting arrows, throwing spears, slashing swords. It would be BEAUTIFUL!'_

"What about that is beautiful?" Ron asked.

_'Everything! War is beautiful!'_

"You're more nuts than the children of Ares," Maddy replied.

' _Then they are amateurs!'_

"Okay, Bella, you need to chill."

_'Yeah, probably.'_

"So," said Hagrid, rubbing his hands together and beaming around, "if you want to come a bit nearer-"

No one seemed to want to. Harry, Ron, Bella and Hermione, however, approached the fence cautiously.

"Now, first thing you gotta know about hippogriffs is, they're proud," said Hagrid. "Easily offended, hippogriffs are. Don't never insult one,  
because it might be the last thing you do."

Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle weren't listening; they were talking in an undertone and Maddy had a nasty feeling they were plotting how best to  
disrupt the lesson.

"You always wait for the hippogriff to make the first move," Hagrid continued. "It's polite, see? You walk toward him, and you bow, and you wait. If he bows back, you're allowed to touch him. If he doesn't bow,  
then get away from him, because those talons hurt.

"Right - who wants ter go first?"

Most of the class backed farther away in answer. Even Harry, Ron, and Hermione had misgivings but Bella didn't seem to. The hippogriffs were tossing their fierce heads  
and flexing their powerful wings; they didn't seem to like being tethered like this.

"No one?" said Hagrid, with a pleading look.

Bella raised her hand and walked forward, then she climbed over the paddock fence.

"Good girl, Bella!" roared Hagrid. "Right then - let's see how you get on with Buckbeak."

He untied one of the chains, pulled the gray hippogriff away from its fellows, and slipped off its leather collar. The class on the other side of the paddock seemed to be holding its breath. Malfoy's eyes were  
narrowed maliciously.

"Easy now, Bella," said Hagrid quietly. "You've got eye contact, now try not to blink... Hippogriffs don't trust you if you blink too much..."

Buckbeak had turned his great, sharp head and was staring at Bella with one fierce orange eye.

"That's it," said Hagrid. "That's it, Bella... now, bow."

She bowed and then inclined her head up just a bit. The hippogriff was staring haughtily at her. It didn't move.

"Ah," said Hagrid, sounding worried. "Right - back away, now, Bella, easy does it."

But then, the hippogriff suddenly bent its scaly front knees and sank into what was an unmistakable bow.

"Well done, Bella!" said Hagrid, ecstatic. "Right - yeh can touch him! Pat his beak, go on!"

Bella moved slowly toward the hippogriff and reached out toward it. She happily patted the beak several times and the hippogriff closed its eyes lazily, as though enjoying it.

The class broke into applause, all except for the obvious people, who were looking deeply disappointed.

"Right then, Bella," said Hagrid. "I reckon he might let you ride him!" Bella grinned widely and a gave a double thumbs up.

"You climb up there, just behind the wing joint," said Hagrid, "and mind you don't pull any of his feathers out, he won't like that..." Bella put her foot on the top of Buckbeak's wing and hoisted herself onto  
its back. Buckbeak stood up.

"Go on, then'" roared Hagrid, slapping the hippogriffs hindquarters. Buckbeak suddenly took off without warning, Maddy watched as Bella and Buckbeak soared through the sky, incredibly happy that that was not her.

"Good work, Bella!" roared Hagrid as everyone except Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Parkinson and Davies cheered. "Okay, who else wants a go?"

Emboldened by Bella's success, the rest of the class climbed cautiously into the paddock. Hagrid untied the hippogriffs one by one, and soon people were bowing nervously, all over the paddock. Neville ran repeatedly backward from his, which didn't seem to want to bend its  
knees. Ron and Harry practiced on the chestnut, while Bella watched and Hermione and Maddy worked with a salt and pepper coloured one. Well, it was mostly Hermione who worked with the hippogriff, Maddy mostly just talked to Hagrid and tentatively tried it a few times, every time she got a sharp peck either to the back of her head or her neck. Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle had taken over Buckbeak. He had bowed to Malfoy, who was now patting his beak, looking disdainful.

"This is very easy," Malfoy drawled, loud enough for almost everyone to, hear him. "I knew it must have been, if Nevra could do it... I bet you're not dangerous at all, are you?" he said to the hippogriff. "Are you, you great ugly brute?"  
It happened in a flash of steely talons; Malfoy let out a high pitched scream and next moment, Hagrid was wrestling Buckbeak back into his  
collar as he strained to get at Malfoy, who lay curled in the grass, blood blossoming over his robes.

"I'm dying!" Malfoy yelled as the class panicked. "I'm dying, look at me! It's killed me!" This made Maddy laugh.

"You're not dying!" said Hagrid, who had gone very white. "Someone help me  
\- gotta get him outta here-"

Hermione ran to hold open the gate as Hagrid lifted Malfoy easily. As they passed, Harry saw that there was a long, deep gash on Malfoy's arm;  
blood splattered the grass and Hagrid ran with him, up the slope toward the castle.

Very shaken, the Care of Magical Creatures class followed at a walk. The  
Slytherins were all shouting about Hagrid.

"They should fire him straight away!" said Pansy Parkinson, who was in  
tears.

"It was Malfoy's fault!" snapped Dean Thomas. Crabbe and Goyle flexed their muscles threateningly.

They all climbed the stone steps into the deserted entrance hall.

"I'm going to see if he's okay!" said Parkinson, and they all watched her run up the marble staircase. The other Slytherins, still muttering about Hagrid, headed away in the direction of their dungeon common room; Harry, Ron, Bella, Maddy and Hermione proceeded upstairs to the library.

"You think he'll be all right?" said Hermione nervously.

"Course he will. Madam Pomfrey can mend cuts in about a second," said  
Harry, who had had far worse injuries mended magically by the nurse.

"She literally grew my arm back last year," Bella reminded her.

"And she actually kept me from dying in the first year," Maddy added. "Remember that rib thing?"

"That was a really bad thing to happen in Hagrid's first class, though, wasn't it?" said Ron, looking worried. "Trust Malfoy to mess things up for him..."

"Oh wait, I've got Charms," Maddy said when they finally got to the library. "See ya!" She yelled as she ran back down the stairs to get to Flitwick's classroom in time.

She slammed into Elliot right outside the door, thankfully Elliot had grown quite a bit over the summer and Maddy had not so her head collided with Elliot's chest instead of her face.

"Ow," Elliot shot her a glare as the two proceeded into the room just in time.

"Hey, you're not the one with a hurt nose and now throbbing broken arm," Maddy gestured to her sling.

"Speaking of-"

"Oh yes, just brush everything else off."

"-why don't you just get Madam Pomfrey to fix it up?" Elliot asked as they sat down.

"Because the healers at Camp tried to heal it and this is the best they could get it, which is actually pretty good, this sling should come off in like a week. Actually, my arm was pretty much just completely shattered, just utterly demolished."

"What happened?"

"Short story I was stepped on."

"By what, a house?"

"No, worse, a giant. Twice."

"Why do you get hurt so much?"

"Uh, well I have weak skin and bones and I also don't wear armor."

"What are you, an idiot?"

"I mean probably, but I just don't wear it because I forget..."

"Yep, you are an idiot."

"How was Divination?"

"Wonderful, Sue Li got her death predicted, via what was apparently a crow in her dregs but really it could have been any type of bird or maybe just a weird shape and I got to tell my partner, this Hufflepuff named Seo-yun Gorre, that she would be meeting the love of her life soon but they would die a tragic death shortly thereafter. She laughed and told me that I would meet my demise at the hands of money. Lots of money. I am going to literally drown in a sea money. I will die like a queen."

"Sorry for the delay!" Professor Flitwick squeaked from atop his pile of books, making everyone quiet down as the lesson began.

Hagrid wasn't at dinner that night and when Harry, Hermione, Ron, Maddy, Bella and Hagrid went to visit him he was in pretty bad condition. He was positive he was going to be fired, Malfoy was acting as if his arm was badly broken and the school governors had been contacted about the Buckbeak incident. It didn't look good for him.


	3. Hogsmeade Halloween

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another unedited one... sorry...

Malfoy didn't reappear in classes until late on Thursday morning, when the Slytherins and Gryffindors were halfway through double Potions. He swaggered into the dungeon, his right arm covered in bandages and bound up in a sling, acting as though he were the heroic survivor of some dreadful battle. Maddy was going to lose it someday because of that boy and she felt that that day might be sooner than previously thought.

"How is it, Draco?" simpered Parkinson. "Does it hurt much?"

"Yeah," said Malfoy, putting on a brave sort of grimace. But Maddy saw him wink at Crabbe and Goyle when Parkinson had looked away.

"Settle down, settle down," said Professor Snape idly. Oh yes, classic Snape favouritism, Maddy could never get enough of it.

They were making a new potion that day, a Shrinking Solution. Malfoy set up  
his cauldron right next to Harry and Ron, so that they were preparing their ingredients on the same table.

"Sir," Malfoy called, "sir, I'll need help cutting up these daisy roots, because of my arm-"

"Weasley, cut up Malfoy's roots for him," said Snape without looking up.

"Professor," Maddy called as Ron turned brick red. "My arm's _actually_ broken and I'm cutting my roots just fine." He did not respond.

" _Cut your own roots_ ," Ron hissed at Malfoy.

"Weasley, you heard Professor Snape; cut up these roots."

"Well, look at Maddy, she's cutting hers just fine, you can cut your own since there's _nothing wrong with your arm_."

Malfoy cleared his throat and said, "Professor, Weasley isn't cutting my roots like you asked."

"Ten points from Gryffindor," Snape snapped. "Cut those roots, Weasley."

"But Maddy-" Ron began.

"Miss Mender's wound is not as bad as-"

"Oh yes because getting your arm literally shattered is less severe than a sharp peck!" Maddy exclaimed.

"Detention, Mender!"

"Fine! Give me detention, it's not going to change the fact that Malfoy's faking his injury and that he should be doing his work on his own!"

"A week's worth of detentions," Snape snarled. "Now, _sit down_ , Mender." Maddy, who hasn't realized that she was standing dropped down to her seat, fuming and getting odd looks from around the classroom. "Weasley, cut those roots."

Ron seized his knife, pulled Malfoy's roots toward him, and began to chop them roughly, so that they were all different sizes.

"Professor," drawled Malfoy, "Weasley's mutilating my roots, sir."

Snape approached their table, stared down his hooked nose at the roots, then gave Ron an unpleasant smile from beneath his long, greasy black  
hair.

"Change roots with Malfoy, Weasley."

"But, sir-!" Ron had spent the last quarter of an hour carefully shredding his own  
roots into exactly equal pieces.

"Now," said Snape in his most dangerous voice. Ron shoved his own beautifully cut roots across the table a, Malfoy,  
then took up the knife again.

"And, sir, I'll need this shrivelfig skinned," said Malfoy, his voice full of malicious laughter.

"Potter, you can skin Malfoy's shrivelfig," said Snape, giving Harry a look of took Malfoy's shrivelfig as Ron began trying to repair the damage to the roots he now had to use. Harry skinned the shrivelfig as fast as he could and flung it back across the table at Malfoy without speaking. Malfoy was smirking more broadly than ever.

"Seen your pal Hagrid lately?" he asked them quietly.

"None of your business," said Ron jerkily, without looking up.

"I'm afraid he won't be a teacher much longer," said Malfoy in a tone of mock sorrow. "Father's not very happy about my injury-"

"Keep talking, Malfoy, and I'll give you a real injury," snarled Ron.

"-he's complained to the school governors. And to the Ministry of Magic. Father's got a lot of influence, you know. And a lasting injury like this-" he gave a huge, fake sigh "-who knows if my arm'll ever be the same again?"

"Malfoy," Maddy snarled from behind the blond, "if you don't shut up about your stupid arm I'm going to put your arm in the same state mind was in when I first got this injury, okay?" Malfoy just smirked at her, she put her knife down so she wouldn't accidentally throw it at his head and began to close her eyes and try to calm down, Bella was staring daggers at both Malfoy and Snape and Elliot was buried in concentration as she made her potion in perfect precision.

"So that's why you're putting it on," said Harry. "To try to get  
Hagrid fired."

"Well," said Malfoy, lowering his voice to a whisper, "partly, Potter. But there are other benefits too. Weasley, slice my caterpillars for me."

A few cauldrons away, Neville was in trouble. Neville regularly went to pieces in Potions lessons; it was his worst subject, and his great fear  
of Professor Snape made things ten times worse. His potion, which was supposed to be a bright, acid green, had turned-

"Orange, Longbottom," said Snape, ladling some up and allowing to splash back into the cauldron, so that everyone could see. "Orange. Tell me, boy, does anything penetrate that thick skull of yours? Didn't you hear me say, quite clearly, that only one bat spleen  
was needed? Didn't I state plainly that a dash of leech juice would suffice? What do I have to do to make you understand, Longbottom?"

Neville was pink and trembling. He looked as though he was on the verge of tears.

"Please, sir," said Hermione, from beside Neville, "please, I could help Neville put it right-"

"I don't remember asking you to show off, Miss Granger," said Snape coldly, and Hermione went as pink as Neville. "Longbottom, at the end of this lesson we will feed a few drops of this potion to your toad and see what happens. Perhaps that will encourage you to do it properly." Snape moved away, leaving Neville breathless with fear.

"Help me!" he moaned to Hermione. Yeah, that boy's toad was going to die, Maddy could feel the death leaking out of the cauldron.

"Hey, Harry," said Seamus Finnigan, leaning over to borrow Harry's brass scales from the table in front of him, "have you heard? Daily Prophet this morning - they reckon Sirius Black's been spotted."

"Where?" said Harry and Ron quickly, Maddy and Bella leaned in to listen. On the other side of the table, Malfoy looked up, listening closely.

"Not too far from here," said Seamus, who looked excited. "It was a muggle who saw him. 'Course, she didn't really understand. The muggles  
think he's just an ordinary criminal, don't they? So she phoned the telephone hot line. By the time the Ministry of Magic got there, he was  
gone."

"Not too far from here... " Ron repeated, looking significantly at Harry. He turned around and saw Malfoy watching closely. "What, Malfoy? Need something else skinned?"

But Malfoy's eyes were shining malevolently, and they were fixed on Harry. He leaned across the table. "Thinking Of trying to catch Black single handedly, Potter?"

"Yeah, that's right," said Harry offhandedly. Malfoys thin mouth was curving in a mean smile.

"Of course, if it was me," he said quietly, "I'd have done something before now. I wouldn't be staying in school like a good boy, I'd be out  
there looking for him."

"What are you talking about, Malfoy?" said Ron roughly.

"Don't you know, Potter?" breathed Malfoy, his pate eyes narrowed.

"Know what?"

Malfoy let out a low, sneering laugh. "Maybe you'd rather not risk your neck," he said. "Want to leave it to  
the dementors, do you? But if it was me, I'd want revenge. I'd hunt him down myself."

"What are you talking about?" said Harry angrily, but at that moment Snape called, "You should have finished adding your ingredients by now;  
this potion needs to stew before it can be drunk, so clear away while it simmers and then we'll test Longbottom's..."

Crabbe and Goyle laughed openly, watching Neville sweat as he stirred his potion feverishly. Hermione was muttering instructions to him out of the corner of her mouth, so that Snape wouldn't see.

The end of the lesson in sight, Snape strode over to Neville, who was cowering by his cauldron, which no longer had any trace of death.

"Everyone gather 'round," said Snape, his black eyes glittering, "and watch what happens to Longbottom's toad. If he has managed to produce a  
Shrinking Solution, it will shrink to a tadpole. If, as I don't doubt, he has done it wrong, his toad is likely to be poisoned."

Snape picked up Trevor the toad in his left hand and dipped a small spoon into  
Neville's potion, which was now green. He trickled a few drops down Trevor's throat. There was a moment of hushed silence, in which Trevor gulped; then there  
was a small pop, and Trevor the tadpole was wriggling in Snape's palm.

The Gryffindors burst into applause. Snape, looking sour, pulled a small bottle from the pocket of his robe, poured a few drops on top of Trevor,  
and he reappeared suddenly, fully grown.

"Five points from Gryffindor," said Snape, which wiped the smiles from almost every face. "I told you not to help him, Miss Granger. Class dismissed."

Harry, Ron, Bella, Maddy and Hermione climbed the steps to the entrance hall. Elliot had split off from them when they left the classroom, so she was off doing whatever it was that she did when she wasn't with the five of them.

"Five points from Gryffindor because the potion was all right! Why didn't you lie, Hermione? You should've said Neville did it all by himself!" Ron seethed. Hermione didn't answer. Ron looked around. "Where is she?"

The others turned too. They were at the top of the steps now, watching the rest of the class pass them, heading for the Great Hall and lunch.

"She was right behind us," said Ron, frowning.

"There she is," said Harry.  
Hermione was panting slightly, hurrying up the stairs; one hand clutched her bag, the other seemed to be tucking something down the front of her  
robes.

"How did you do that?" said Ron.

"What?" said Hermione, joining them.

"One minute you were right behind us, the next moment, you were back at the bottom of the stairs again."

"What?" Hermione looked slightly confused. "Oh - I had to go back for something. Oh no-"

A seam had split on Hermione's bag. Maddy wasn't surprised; she could see that it was crammed with at least a dozen large and heavy books.

"Why are you carrying all these around with you?" Ron asked her.

"You know how many subjects I'm taking," said Hermione breathlessly. "Couldn't hold these for me, could you?"

"Why would you carry them all at once?" Maddy asked.

Ron was turning over the books she had handed him, looking at the covers. "You haven't got any of these subjects today. It's only Defense Against the Dark Arts this afternoon."

"Oh yes," said Hermione vaguely, but she packed all the books back into her bag just the same. I hope there's something good for lunch, I'm  
starving," she added, and she marched off toward the Great Hall.

"D'you get the feeling Hermione's not telling us something?" Ron asked.

"Either that or she's spiralling into insanity," Maddy agreed.

* * *

The Study of Ancient Runes class was let out early due to a Ravenclaw boy, Ed Flutey, suddenly getting sick -it was very gross and the girl behind Maddy had gotten some of the sick on her so that was practically traumatising and Maddy was one of several people who immediately fled the room. Though this event was unfortunate Maddy liked the time she had to run around the mostly empty castle.

When the bell rang the door she had been running by opened, expelling a plethora of chatter.

"Did you see me take that banshee?"

"And the hand!"

"And Snape in that hat!"

"And my mummy!"

"I wonder why Professor Lupin's frightened of crystal balls?"

"That was the best Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson we've ever had, wasn't it?"

This last voice was, unmistakably, Ron. It seemed that the Gryffindors had just finished their Defence class. Maddy noticed that while Hermione and Ron were happy and excited Harry looked to be more thoughtful and upset while Bella had an expression of very bad anxiety that was very slowly ebbing away.

"He seems like a very good teacher," said Hermione approvingly. "But I wish I could have had a turn with the boggart-" So it was a practical lesson? They'd never had one of those before. And what was a boggart?

"What would it have been for you?" said Ron, sniggering. "A piece of homework that only got nine out of ten?"

"No!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Hey guys," Maddy said, catching their attention. "Good lesson, huh?"

"Amazing!" Ron said excitedly.

"How'd you get here so quickly?" Hermione asked.

"Ancient Runes was let out early, I was just running around," Maddy replied. "So, what was the lesson like?"

"Professor Lupin was really good, _far_ better than Quirrell and Lockhart," Hermione said and Maddy rolled her eyes with a very audible 'duh.' "We faced boggarts today, well, Harry, Bella and I didn't get to but Lupin said something about finishing up after dinner." Bella held up a paper that said, _'Please stab me in the chest, I do NOT want to face a boggart. Please please please please PLEASE'_ The others didn't see the paper as Bella was behind them and she held it up as Hermione spoke.

"Okay, but what _is_ a boggart?" Maddy asked.

"It's a sort of creature that lives in dark places and it takes the form of whatever the person closest to it fears most," Hermione explained.

"Thank you for telling me this, now I know to skip my first lesson."

"Why?" Ron asked.

"First of all, what kind of idiot would I have to be to knowingly show my greatest fear to people who hate me and _will_ use it. One of the traits of Slytherin is _resourcefulness_ , so yeah. Also, Ron, I have seen some shit and while I'm not entirely sure what it is that I fear the most it probably has something to do with Zeus or a monster or whatever, so yeah, not doing it! Besides, if it's Zeus he would actually strike me down where I stand if I did _anything_ to that made him remotely less threatening."

 _'Those are my reasons for not going to the thing after dinner.'_ Bella wrote, this time Hermione saw it and her face twisted in surprise, her thought process was probably something along the lines of 'she normally loves things like this.'

* * *

The next day Bella had regained her voice and explained what was up with her recent muteness, it turns out that she had developed selective mutism, which Maddy thought would be ridiculously annoying and inconvenient to have. But what it was was when Bella was exposed to certain stimuli she would find that she would not be able to talk, it wasn't something she could control but she said that it, so far, had only been lasting in short bursts and only after certain memories were brought up due to visual, physical or auditory stimuli as well as smell. She, understandably, would not even begin to describe the slightest nature of these memories and whenever it was brought up she would begin to loudly whistle or hum -she whistled a lot of Bernard Herrmann's _Twisted Nerve-_ to distract herself. According to Hermione, Harry and Ron she had ended up playing it on her violin the previous night.

Maddy talked to her at lunch, her assumption that the Romans had also had a war with their version of Kronos, she didn't say much more than 'there was a war,' which was understandable. Bella asked Maddy about her arm and the fact that she had been in a really terrible mood on the first of September.

"Well, I think it has something to do with waking up in a place where my most prominent memories are good ones, which kind of sucks because Camp Half Blood has literally been my home forever," she replied.

"Yeah, that makes sense," Bella agreed. "I think I might be in kind of the same situation with Camp Jupiter, I love the place but..." she trailed off with a sigh. "We should get back to them," she gestured to the more populated area of the Gryffindor table and they both moved from the completely empty corner they had been in to where their friends were sitting.

"Where's Elliot?" Bella asked, looking around the table and at the Slytherin table as well.

"She decided to eat lunch in the kitchens so that Professor Lupin wouldn't see her since she has Defence next and is skipping," Harry informed her.

"Oh gods," Maddy groaned. "He could have seen me! I need to do something to make it seem like I'm sick or injured!" The four of them eyed her arm. "I mean newly injured, not healing. Bella, can you dislocate my arm?"

"I'm not dislocating your arm!" Bella exclaimed.

"You said you relocate other people's arms last year, just dislocate it, pretend you're walking me to the hospital wing and then relocate it!"

"Umm, _nooooo_."

"You're no help. Okay, somebody hex me."

"Absolutely not," Ron replied.

"Hermione, what about you?" Maddy turned to the brunette who was buried in a thick book filled with a lot of complicated things. She didn't respond.

"Yeah, she won't reply, she's working on something for Arithmancy," Ron replied.

"Mender," somebody snapped from behind Maddy, making her jump. She turned and, surprise, surprise, it was Snape. "Back to your table."

"Professor, am I _really_ hurting anyone by sitting with people who are my age and that I can stand?" Maddy asked.

"Do you want to get _another_ week's worth of detention?" He snarled.

"I honestly don't care," Maddy shrugged. "Go ahead, I won't move."

"A month of detention and I _will_ be speaking to your guardian about your behaviour."

"I honestly don't think either of them will care, and I don't think my mom would care either."

Snape turned and walked away, Bella, Hermione, Harry and Ron were all gaping at Maddy, who shrugged and said, "I should go pretend like I have a medical emergency, meaning I'll be running out and acting like I'm about to be sick. Au revoir, if I don't come back sometime soon assume I am either dead, dying or at my dad's." Without waiting for a response she charged out of the Great Hall, a hand to her mouth, her cheeks puffed out and her arm wrapped around her stomach.

* * *

Defence Against the Dark Arts quickly became everyone but the third year Slytherin's favourite class, Elliot and Maddy enjoyed it because they actually _learned_ things and it was always fun when Elliot would rush to stick her hand up first just to show up the others, though Theodore Nott and Daphne Greengrass would beat her to the punch just as often as she would answer, it seemed that the three of them now had some sort of rivalry going on.

Maddy was in the process of getting switched from Divination to Care of Magical Creatures, the animals hated her but Hagrid was using mellower animals -meaning flobberworms, which were worse than actual worms when it comes to excitement, also Maddy could swear she killed one just by poking it and it wasn't her powers acting up because there were a few others who did the same. Apparently their heads are like little baby heads, touch their head and they either die or get serious brain damage that really isn't noticeable because it's a worm- since the chaotic first lesson and Maddy would honestly take being attacked to getting an onslaught of memories that lead to painful ones. She also didn't appreciate being told she was going to die soon everytime she had the class.

One morning Maddy and Elliot arrived to find that Ron and Hermione weren't speaking and Harry wasn't on the best terms with her either, Bella had assumed a position of relative neutrality in the fighting -which Harry had attempted but failed to do- though Ron refused to speak to her as well.

"What the Hades has gotten into you four?" Maddy demanded.

"Crookshanks tried to attack Scabbers," Harry began, "and Hermione thinks that Crookshanks is in the right-"

"Because Ron _always_ complains about Scabbers and cats hunt rats!" Hermione exclaimed angrily. "And it's not like Scabbers was even hurt anyways!"

"Hermione makes three very good points," Elliot said. "Besides, Ron, wasn't your rat owned by Percy before you? How old _is_ he?"

"About twelve," Ron replied, glaring at Elliot.

"Ron," Elliot grabbed his hand as if a close family member of his had just died, "you are aware that common rats only live for about four years, right?"

"Wouldn't it be better for you if it just died?" Maddy asked. "You wouldn't have to buy anymore of that rat tonic and it's just a rat, you can buy a new, better rat or not a rat, an owl or a ferret - oh! Or a weasel! Get a weasel, Ron!" Ron huffed and turned away from her and Elliot. "What is with you people and animals! Bella, you love animals what did you say about this?"

"That cats hunt rats and that Crookshanks couldn't help it but maybe he should be kept under a bit of a tighter watch," Bella replied. "But now that I think about it that rat really should be dead. Sorry, Ron."

"Well, isn't Hogsmeade going to be fun for us, two of our friends fighting," Elliot said to Bella.

"Oh, I can't go," Bella said.

" _You too_?" Ron asked, appalled and seemingly having forgotten about his current grudge.

"Yeah, I kind of forgot and anyway, I'm kind of in the same predicament as Maddy. Who would sign it? My sister's a Preator but she isn't of age yet and is _really_ busy, same thing with the other Preator, I've never met my mum, Terminus doesn't have hands and even if he did he would probably not care because he's a god and my only other option is a wolf who lives in the woods."

"What the _fuuuuuck_ ," Maddy replied after a long silence.

"What about your dad?" Hermione asked.

"I was busy all summer, I didn't see him at all and I couldn't mail him because, again, I was busy."

"Why is a wolf your guardian?" Harry asked. "And what's a Preator?"

"Because Lupa teaches us Romans, she's great but, sadly, she lacks opposable thumbs so she can't sign things and Preators are, well I actually don't know how to explain this so I'll just say they're a type of Roman leader. Anyway, have fun in Hogsmeade, probably alone."

Soon after that Ron, Hermione and Elliot left, and the first two were on better terms now and would actually talk and look at each other, in fact it was as if they hadn't had an argument.

"So, where to?" Maddy asked. "I've always wanted to get into the other common room, we can start with Gryffindor, then go to Ravenclaw Tower, then I can show you guys Slytherin and then we can try to find Hufflepuff. It's somewhere near the kitchens but the entrance is completely hidden unlike the other common rooms, so we'll need an inside man. For this I was thinking we could use Harry's fame to get a second or first year Hufflepuff to help us!"

"Maybe later," Harry said.

"Alright then, we should work on that vampire essay for Lupin."

"Ugh," Bella groaned.

"It's a good use of time and we can help each other, basically guaranteeing us good grades!"

"Fine," Bella crossed her arms. "If only I hadn't been so busy this summer, then I could be going to Hogsmeade."

"But you'd have to pass the Dementors," Maddy pointed out and Bella paled.

"Never mind, I'm good staying here. Let's get our essay stuff and meet back up in the library."

This is exactly what they did, Maddy went to get her things in the Slytherin common room and Bella and Harry went up to the Gryffindor common room.

Once the three of them had entered the library Bella suddenly realized that she had forgotten to grab a full inkwell so they all decided to walk together up to Gryffindor Tower but on their way up they were stopped by someone saying, "Harry? Maddy? Bellona?"

The three of them turned around and saw Professor Lupin standing in the doorway to his office.

"What are you doing?" said Lupin, though in a very different voice from Filch. "Where are Ron, and Hermione and Elliot?"

"Hogsmeade," Harry replied, in a would-be casual voice.

"Ah," said Lupin. He considered the third years for a moment. "Why don't you three come in? I've just taken delivery of a grindylow for our next lesson."

"A grindylow!" Bella perked up and ran past Lupin into his office, causing the professor to chuckle.

"A what?" Harry asked as he followed the redhead into the office. Maddy moved after him a little apprehensively. In the corner there was a very large tank of water. A sickly green creature with sharp little horns had its face pressed against the glass, pulling faces and flexing its long, spindly fingers. Bella was perched awkwardly in front of the tank, staring at the creature with wide eyes.

"Water demon," said Lupin, surveying the grindylow thoughtfully. "We shouldn't have much difficulty with him, not after the kappas. The trick is to break his grip. You notice the abnormally long fingers? Strong, but very brittle."

"Can I pet it?" Bella asked, following the grindylow around by shifting her body around.

"Sure, just be careful," Lupin nodded and Bella submerged her hand into the water. "Cup of tea?" He offered. "I was just thinking of making some."

"All right," Harry shrugged.

"I'm good," Bella replied.

"No thanks," Maddy shook her head.

"Okay," Lupin tapped the kettle with his wand and a blast of steam issued suddenly from the spout. "I've only got teabags, I'm afraid, but I daresay you've had enough of tea leaves?"

"How did you know about that?" Harry asked.

"Professor McGonagall told me," said Lupin, passing Harry a chipped mug of tea. "You're not worried, are you?"

"Not really," Harry said. "Maddy, Bella and Hermione have been doing a good job of really driving in the idea that it's not real."

"Because it isn't," Bella said. "Da-! Crap..." She quickly corrected herself. Maddy, Harry and Lupin looked over to see that the grindylow was gripping her arm.

"Try twisting your-" Lupin paused when she yanked her arm out of the grindylows grip almost effortlessly. "Very good, Bellona."

"Thank you," Bella smiled and sat down beside Maddy.

"Anything worrying you, Harry?" Lupin asked and Maddy looked over at the boy beside her and saw that he had an expression that was conflicted, nervous and thoughtful.

"No," Harry drank a bit of his tea and watched the grindylow brandishing a fist at him. "Yes," he said suddenly, putting his tea down on Lupin's desk. "You know that day we fought the boggart?"

"Yes," said Lupin slowly. "Why didn't you let me fight it?" said Harry abruptly. Lupin raised his eyebrows.

"I would have thought that was obvious, Harry," he said, sounding surprised.

"Why?" he said again.

"Well," said Lupin, frowning slightly, "I assumed that if the boggart faced you, it would assume the shape of Lord Voldemort." Harry stared. "Clearly, I was wrong," said Lupin, still frowning at Harry. "But I didn't think it a good idea for Lord Voldemort to materialize in the staffroom. I imagined that people would panic."

"I didn't think of Voldemort," said Harry. "I-I remembered those dementors."

"I see," said Lupin thoughtfully. "Well, well... I'm impressed." He smiled slightly at the look of surprise on Harry's face. "That suggests that what you fear most of all is fear. Very wise, Harry." Harry didn't know what to say to that, so he drank some more, tea. "So you've been thinking that I didn't believe you capable of fighting the boggart?" said Lupin shrewdly.

"Well... yeah," said Harry. He was suddenly feeling a lot happier.

"Are you two feeling similarly since you didn't get to face the boggart?" Lupin asked Maddy and Bella.

" _No_ ," Bella said in slightly panicked and clipped voice.

"Absolutely not, I'm fine with not know what my biggest fear is," Maddy said quickly.

"I see," Lupin said.

"Professor Lupin, you know the dementors-" Harry was interrupted by a knock on the door.

Come in," called Lupin. The door opened, and in came Snape. He was carrying a goblet, which was smoking faintly, and stopped at the sight of Harry, Maddy and Bella his black eyes narrowing. "Ah, Severus," said Lupin, smiling. "Thank you very much. Could you leave it here on the desk for me?" Snape set down the smoking goblet, his eyes wandering between Harry and Lupin. "I was just showing Harry my grindylow," said Lupin pleasantly, pointing at the tank.

"Fascinating," said Snape, without looking at it. "You should drink that directly, Lupin."

"Yes, Yes, I will," said Lupin.

"I made an entire cauldronful," Snape continued. "If you need more."

"I should probably take some again tomorrow. Thank you very much, Severus."

"Not at all," said Snape, but there was a look in his eye Harry didn't like. He backed out of the room, unsmiling and watchful. Lupin smiled.

"Professor Snape has very kindly concocted a potion for me," he said. "I have never been much of a potion-brewer and this one is particularly complex." He picked up the goblet and sniffed it. "Pity sugar makes it useless," he added, taking a sip and shuddering. Bella suspiciously looked at it then glanced over to Maddy who shook her head.

"Why-?" Harry began. Lupin looked at him and answered the unfinished question.

"I've been feeling a bit off-color," he said. "This potion is the only thing that helps. I am very lucky to be working alongside Professor Snape; there aren't many wizards who are up to making it." Professor Lupin took another sip.

"Professor Snape's very interested in the Dark Arts, he blurted out.

"Really?" said Lupin, looking only mildly interested as he took another gulp of potion.

"Some people reckon-" Harry hesitated, then plunged recklessly on, "some people reckon he'd do anything to get the Defense Against the Dark Arts job." Lupin drained the goblet and pulled a face.

"Disgusting," he said.

"Harry, if Snape was trying to kill Professor Lupin do you think he would give him the poison when there are people right there?" Bella asked.

When nobody else said anything Lupin said, "Well, I'd better get back to work. See you at the feast later."

"Right," said Harry, putting down his empty teacup.

"Bye, Professor," Bella waved.

* * *

"I was sleeping," Maddy whined. "Why do we have to go to the Great Hall! What the Hades is happening?"

"No clue," Elliot yawned. "We can ask... the friends if they-" she yawned deeply again "-know anything."

"Speaking of the friends, where the fuck are they?"

"I think I see Bell and 'Mione's giant arse hair, c'mon," Elliot weaved through the crowded, Maddy following behind her.

"The teachers and I need to conduct a thorough search of the castle," Professor Dumbledore announced loudly as Professors McGonagall and Flitwick closed all doors into the hall. "I'm afraid that, for your own safety, you will have to spend the night here. I want the prefects to stand guard over the entrances to the hall and I am leaving the Head Boy and Girl in charge. Any disturbance should be reported to me immediately," he added to Percy Weasley, who was looking immensely proud and important, "send word with one of the ghosts."

Professor Dumbledore paused, about to leave the hall, and then said, "Oh, yes, you'll be needing..." One casual wave of his wand and the long tables flew to the edges of the hall and stood themselves against the walls; another wave, and the floor was covered with hundreds of squashy purple sleeping bags. "Sleep well," said Professor Dumbledore, closing the door behind him.

The hall immediately began to buzz excitedly and as Maddy and Elliot got to their friends they could hear Seamus Finnegan saying to a few Ravenclaws, "It's Sirius Black! He absolutely shredded the Fat Lady's portrait. She's fine but really scared."

"Hey guys," Maddy said tiredly. "I'm so tired I feel like my eye's bleeding. Is it?"

"No, it's fine," Harry shook his head.

"Everyone into their sleeping bags!" shouted Percy. "Come on, now, no more talking! Lights out in ten minutes!"

"C'mon," Ron said to Harry, Hermione, Bella, Elliot and Maddy; they seized six sleeping bags and dragged them into a corner.

Maddy submerged herself into the sleeping bag and tried to get back to sleep but just before she managed to fall into the bliss of unawareness Hermione said, "Do you think Black's still in the castle?"

"Jesus christ, Hermione," Elliot exclaimed with a muffled voice. "Some people are trying to sleep!" Maddy looked up and saw that her face was placed firmly in her pillow.

"Sorry, I'll talk quieter," Hermione whispered.

"Thank you," Elliot sighed and pulled her sleeping bag up over her head so the only thing that could be seen of her were a few strands of brown hair.

"Dumbledore obviously thinks he might be," Ron answered Hermione's question.

"It's very lucky he picked tonight, you know," said Hermione. "The one night we weren't in the tower..."

"I reckon he's lost track of time, being on the run," said Ron. "Didn't realize it was Halloween. Otherwise he'd have come bursting in here."

All around them, people were asking one another the same question: "How did he get in?"

"Maybe he knows how to Apparate," said a Ravenclaw a few feet away, "Just appear out of thin air, you know."

"Disguised himself, probably," said a Hufflepuff fifth year.

"He could've flown in," suggested Dean Thomas.

"Honestly, am I the only person who's ever bothered to read Hogwarts: A History?" said Hermione crossly to Harry, Maddy and Ron. Elliot and Bella were both fast asleep and lightly snoring.

"Probably," said Ron. "Why?"

"Because the castle's protected by more than walls, you know," she said. "There are all sorts of enchantments on it, to stop people entering by stealth. You can't just Apparate in here. And I'd like to see the disguise that could fool those dementors. They're guarding every single entrance to the grounds. They'd have seen him fly in too. And Fitch knows almost all the secret passages, they'll have them covered..."

"We should ask Fred and George if they saw him on their map," Maddy sighed.

"The lights are going out now!" Percy shouted. "I want everyone in their sleeping bags and no more talking!" The candles all went out at once. The only light now came from the silvery ghosts, who were drifting about talking seriously to the prefects, and the enchanted ceiling, which, like the sky outside, was scattered with stars. Maddy fell asleep almost immediately due to the newfound silence and the soothingness of the ghosts and stars.

* * *

The next day Maddy and Elliot got word that the Fat Lady's ripped up portrait had been replaced with Sir Cadogan's portrait. He was apparently more annoying than when he guided them to Divination and would change the password twice a week. He was described in many ways but mostly just a 'complete lunatic.'

Harry had also been informed that he would not be practicing Quidditch anymore because of Black, which made Bella clearly very happy but also sad for Harry -though it was very clear that her happiness overruled her sadness.

Snape then substituted for Lupin and made them do an essay on werewolves -Maddy was positive she would ace it but that was _so_ far ahead in the book than they were!- according to Harry, Ron, Hermione and Bella. And now Maddy and Elliot were going to their Defence Against the Dark Arts class.

"Professor Lupin has not left any record of the topics you have covered so far," Snape said at the start of the lesson, "so today we shall discuss werewolves."

"Er, Professor," Daphne Greengrass said slowly. "We're only on hinkypunks."

"Yes, I am aware Miss Greengrass, however we will be covering werewolves today. Now, which of you can tell me how we distinguish between the werewolf and the true wolf?"

Maddy knew the answer but decided against raising her hand since Elliot, Greengrass, Nott and Malfoy already had their hands up.

"Mr. Malfoy," Snape said.

Malfoy steadily drawled out the lengthy response, pointing out every small difference and, eventually, gaining _fifteen_ points from Snape. The lesson moved smoothly and at the end of the lesson, as expected, he assigned a two roll essay on the ways to recognize and kill werewolves.

Later that day Maddy, Elliot, Ron, Hermione, Harry and Bella asked Fred and George if they had seen anything on their magical map, unfortunately the answer was a no. They had left it in the common room that night so they saw nothing.

The day after that was the Gryffindor-Hufflepuff match. Maddy decided to stay inside since it was _pouring_ rain so she was working on homework in the now empty Slytherin common room with Elliot, who also decided not to be soaked to the bone.

"Maaaaaaddy," Elliot groaned.

"What?" Said girl looked up from her Transfiguration essay.

"Do my werewolf essay."

"No."

"Aww, come on. You're like the expert on this stuff. Didn't you spend over a year tracking them?"

"Yes, but I'm not helping you unless you do my Potions essay."

"Deal!" Elliot slid over two rolls of parchment and pulled three of Maddy's rolls over to her to start the Potions homework.

A half hour passed and there was suddenly a heavy, harsh knocking at the entrance to the common room.

"If you don't know the password go away!" Elliot yelled.

"Elliot, open this door!" Hermione shouted in a panicked, teary voice. "Harry's in the hospital wing!"

Maddy opened the door a minute later and said, "Harry wasn't even playing."

"He wasn't going to but Bella got hit with a bludger -she just broke her kneecap- so he replaced her and after that the dementors came over and he passed out and fell off his broom from so far up and-" everything after this was incomprehensible as she broke off in heavy tears.

"Okay, rest assured he is not dead," Maddy sighed. "I would have felt it. We'll go up there-"

"Don't speak for me!" Elliot exclaimed from her spot on the sofa.

"She's going."

"I didn't say I _wasn't_ going. I just said don't speak for me," Elliot said, suddenly beside Maddy.

The three of them quickly ran up to the hospital wing, the entire Gryffindor quidditch team, Ron and several other people were already crowded around a bed and beside that bed Bella sat with a worried look that mingled with a frown. People were murmuring things like 'lucky the ground was so soft,' 'I thought he was dead for sure,' 'But he didn't even break his glasses,' and eventually Harry slowly opened his eyes.

"Harry!" Fred Weasley, covered in mud, exclaimed. "How're you feeling?"

"What happened?" Harry asked, sitting up so suddenly everyone gasped.

"You fell off," Fred said. "Must've been -what?- fifty feet?"

"We thought you'd died," said Alicia Spinnet, who was shaking. Hermione made a small, squeaky noise.

"But the match," said Harry. "What happened? Are we doing a replay?" No one said anything. "We didn't... lose?"

"Diggory got the Snitch," said George Weasley. "Just after you fell. He didn't realize what had happened. When he looked back and saw you on the ground, he tried to call it off. Wanted a rematch. But they won fair and square... even Wood admits it."

"Where is Wood?" Harry asked.

"Still in the showers," Fred said. "We think he's trying to drown himself." Harry put his face to his knees, his hands gripping his hair. Fred grabbed his shoulder and shook it roughly. "C'mon, Harry, you've never missed the Snitch before."

"There had to be one time you didn't get it," said George. After that it was all Quidditch talk and Maddy was completely lost.

When the team had been forced out by Madam Pomfrey and the only people left in the hospital wing where Harry, Bella, Hermione, Ron, Maddy and Elliot, Hermione began to explain about what had happened in greater detail.

"Dumbledore was really angry," she said in a quaking voice. "I've never seen him like that before. He ran onto the field as you fell, waved his wand, and you sort of slowed down before you hit the ground. Then he whirled his wand at the dementors. Shot silver stuff at them. They left the stadium right away... He was furious they'd come onto the grounds. We heard him-"

"Then he magicked you onto a stretcher," said Ron. "And walked up to school with you floating on it. Everyone thought you were-" His voice faded away.

"Did someone get my Nimbus?" Harry asked after a long moment of silence. Ron, Bella and Hermione looked quickly at each other.

"Er-"

"What?" Harry looked from one to the other.

"It kind of got blown away when you fell," Bella began

"And?" Harry prompted.

"It may have flown into the Whomping Willow..." Harry paled.

"And?" he said shakily.

"Well, you know the Whomping Willow," said Ron. "It-it doesn't like being hit."

"Professor Flitwick brought it back just before you came around," Hermione said in a very small voice. Slowly, she reached down for a bag at her feet, turned it upside down, and tipped a dozen bits of splintered wood and twig onto the bed, the only remains of Harry's faithful, finally beaten broomstick.

Harry stared in horror at the remains of his broom, everyone stayed quiet until Maddy said, "Aren't brooms like a dollar? Wait, someone convert that into English currency and then wizarding currency."

"That's a little over two sickles," Elliot said. "And brooms are actually really expensive. I don't know about you muggles but they're like a minimum of about fifteen galleons."

"How much is that in American currency?"

"Like one hundred and ten dollars with some change."

"Why are brooms so expensive?" Maddy asked.

"They have to be enchanted and stuff," Bella said. "Also branding. They're cheaper in the States, so Harry, you should order from the States. You should be able to get a top quality broom, Firebolts are still pretty expensive there but you could get a Nimbus 2001 for like 20 Galleons and they're like 45 here, so."

"Why're they cheaper in America?" Ron asked.

"Importing price," Hermione said. "Also country to country changing of money amounts, and how popular the company is in that country."

"Don't worry, Harry," Ron said. "You'll get another broom. A better one!"

"Thanks, Ron..." Harry sighed.


	4. An Idea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> School starts tomorrow for me... I might die.
> 
> There's some emotion stuff in this chapter and it probably seems really unnatural, sorry about that. I can't emotion

 

Professor Lupin was back at work by the next time Defence happened and it looked like he had been sick. His old robes were hanging more loosely on him than usual and there were dark shadows beneath his eyes; nevertheless, he smiled at the class as they took their seats.

"I understand that Professor Snape assigned an essay on werewolves," he said. "Well, you do not have to turn it in-" there were scattered sounds of frustration and beside Maddy, Elliot was staring daggers at a roll of parchment in her hand, "-unless you have already completed it, then you can turn it in now." Maddy, Elliot and several other people crowded forward and handed in their rolls.

The rest of the lesson went as normal, Lupin brought out a hinkypunk, a little one-legged creature who looked as though it was made of wisps of smoke and was rather frail and harmless looking. It lured travellers into bogs and used the lantern on it's head to jump ahead of the traveller and lead them.

* * *

At breakfast, Maddy and Elliot were both as awake as they normally were (only about twenty-five percent) when the former was tackled by a screaming redhead.

"MADDY WE'RE BEING EVICTED!" Bella yelled right into her ear.

"Ow, what the Hades, Bell?" Maddy asked, scrunching her face up and defensively and aggressively pushing the daughter of Bellona off of her. "Also, we can't be evicted, we live in a school and aren't even in the same house..."

"I know," Bella sighed and sat down beside her.

"Don't scream," Elliot mumbled belatedly. "I'm very tired and I think you just made my right eardrum burst."

"Sorry," Bella apologized. "Uh, Maddy, Harry wants to talk to us about a thing that I do not know about."

"So why did you scream at me that we were getting evicted?" Maddy asked.

"Because I wanted to wake you up."

"But why being evicted?"

"I don't know, come on, Harry wants to tell us something."

"Not me though, right?" Elliot asked before shoving the last bite of a biscuit into her mouth.

"No, just me and Mads. Come on," Bella jumped up and pulled Maddy out of her seat, then dragged her out of the Great Hall and into a normally empty corridor around the corner where Harry was.

"What's this about?" Maddy asked. "It better be amazing because Bella screamed into my ear so if it isn't I will send you into the actual Underworld, which will, by the way, suck your soul out of you so have fun with that."

"That sounds very fun," Harry said sarcastically. "But anyway yesterday Lupin held me up after class and said that there's a way to keep dementors away. He said that he would help me after Christmas and that you two could join as well."

"Why didn't he ask me to stay after too...?" Bella asked. "I was literally right beside you..."

"He said that you didn't seem too concerned about the dementors and he thought that it was worse for me and that I might not want you to be there or something like that, but I'm fine with it and I want you both to learn how to defend yourselves from the dementors."

"Tell Lupin I say yes to that offer," Maddy said. "You will _not_ be sent to the Underworld."

"Er... thanks..."

"I'll do it too," Bella agreed. "Why wouldn't I?"

* * *

Maddy worked on chopping up roots as Elliot counted out porcupine spines. The daughter of Hades' arm had healed up so her chopping was much better now. Professor Snape was prowling around the classroom, inspecting everyone's progress, sneering rude comments at the students that he didn't like and praising those that he did. These two groups were _almost_ completely separated between whether they were in Gryffindor or Slytherin.

"Hand over those roots," Elliot said. "And do nothing else, you have a fixed arm but you are still completely incompetent when it comes to potion making even when you use that spell that lets you read so you actually know that instructions."

"Yeah, I know," Maddy replied. "That's how it's always worked."

"Just making sure you didn't get cocky. Oh, actually, sort these out within the next... four minutes and twenty-three seconds." She pushed over a cup of colourful liquid to her partner.

"This is liquid," Maddy said slowly.

"Yeah, so?"

"How do you _sort liquid?_ Also, why? This isn't for this potion."

"There's a spell for it and I need it for a project I'm doing."

"What is it and what are you doing? Also, what's the spell?"

"Trying to figure out if I can make the potion equivalent of muggle hair dye or just dye, this is basically just a bunch of colourful ink that I placed a protection spell on so they wouldn't meld together. Don't ask how they all got in there together but I _really_ need them to be sorted out into separate containers so work while you talk. Or don't talk."

"But what's the spell?"

"Say _Divisus_ and then whatever colour it is in Latin, then you just guide it with your wand into another container."

"I don't know colours in Latin."

"Ugh, okay, red is _rubrum_ , green is _viride_ , blue is _caeruleus_ , yellow is _flavum_ , pink is _roseus_ , purple is _purpura_ , orange is _aliquam_ , it's not that hard, Maddy. How did you make it this far in our world without knowing these things?"

"Okay, but what about those other colours that aren't one of the one's you mentioned. Also I remember literally none of what you just said."

"Merlin," Elliot groaned and grabbed the colourful bottle, then leaned backwards to where Hermione and Bella were working. "Bella, you know the colours in Latin, right?"

"I'm better in Latin than English so yeah..." Bella replied.

"Good, separate all these colours into different containers. Say _Divisus_ followed by the colour in Latin, lead it into the container with your wand. I need them all sorted in three minute and eight seconds, then dump the purple one in this phial." Elliot then placed a phial with sparkly, transparent liquid in it.

"Alright!"

" _Bella_ ," Hermione said exasperatedly.

"You've got the potion under control."

Maddy chatted with Elliot as she worked and not even a minute after Bella had started on the colourful liquid Snape had glided over and hissed out, "Miss Nevra, what do you think you're doing?"

"Thing for Elliot," Bella replied.

"I see, and what is this _thing_ you're doing for Miss de la Mare?"

"No clue."

"Miss de la Mare-"

"Side project. Not important." Elliot interrupted. "Hermione can manage on her own, she does it all the time."

"Detention, Miss de la Mare."

"Thank you, Professor!"

Suddenly, a misty looking image of a teenaged girl with wavy blonde hair and a panicked expression popped up. She began to speak but Maddy slammed her hand down on her desk -and through the Iris Message- and smiled nervously.

"Professor, I believe that I am feeling very sick," she said slowly, making up her words as she went along. "I must... adjourn... to the bathroom. Because I am feeling incredibly ill and must go... to the bathroom." She slowly began to stand up but Snape stopped her. She could tell that he was about to dole out punishment and ask questions so before he could say anything she pushed past him and shouted, "Sorry, Professor! It's an emergency!"

Maddy bolted out of the classroom and into the nearest girls' bathroom and almost as if on cue the Iris Message appeared yet again.

"What the Hades, Maddy! This is important!" Annabeth exclaimed.

"Sorry, I was in class with an evil bat teacher who is evil, but I am not in there anymore so, fire away."

"Percy's missing," she said through laboured, panicked breathing. "Nobody can find him! He just disappeared!"

" _What!_ " Maddy exclaimed in horror. "When did this happen? What could have happened? Has Rachel said anything oracle-y?"

"Yesterday, Sally told us he was just gone one morning. Rachel hasn't said anything and we have no idea what could have happened."

"I... I don't know what to say. I guess I can ask one of the Furies or Harpies or some other Underworld creature to look around for him. Keep me updated."

"I will, and thanks, Maddy. Tell me if you hear or see anything," Annabeth sighed.

"Of course," Maddy said seriously.

There was a moment of silence, then the daughter of Athena sighed and said, "I guess we'll talk later..."

"Yeah, see you, Annabeth," Maddy said as Annabeth swiped through the IM, causing it to slowly dissipate.

Maddy stood there until the bell sounded and she walked out, joining her friends and speedwalking them very far away as quickly as she could so she wouldn't have to deal with Snape.

"So, what was that about?" Ron asked.

"You guys remember my cousin Percy, right?"

They each nodded in agreement except Bella who said, "You're related to Ron?"

"No, Bell, he's a different Percy. He's the son of Poseidon. And, well, it turns out that he's missing."

What came next was an explosion of a variety of emotions from each of the six people except Elliot, who simply sighed, clapped Maddy on the back and said, "That sucks, and I'm not entirely sure what to say but the others seem to be covering every single reaction that is physically possible for this type of situation. Actually, Bella covers them all on her own." Maddy looked over to said red head, who was flitting between many emotions and reactions despite the fact that she had never actually met Percy.

"Yeah, whatever, I guess. There isn't really anything we can do so, can we just move on now and just tell me if you see him or hear about him somehow just tell me," Maddy sighed and hitched her bag up on her shoulders. "Now, El and I have Herbology, so... bye." She then quickly walked down the hall without Elliot.

* * *

On the Saturday morning of the second Hogsmeade trip Maddy, Harry and Bella bid goodbye to Ron, Hermione and Elliot, each of them were wrapped up in coats, scarves and other warm clothing to shield themselves from the sudden coldness as the season changed from fall to winter and fresh onslaught of snow and wind.

As the trio wandered around the castle, unsure of where to go, Bella asked Maddy, "Why don't you just shadow travel us to Hogsmeade?"

"I want to go to Hogsmeade but not that badly," Maddy replied. "Also, I don't really know how far away it is, nor do I have any idea what the place looks like so it makes shadow travelling kind of hard."

"Okay, I guess that makes sense and _Neptune's beard Fred and George's map!_ "

"What?" Harry asked.

"What did you just say?" Maddy wondered, bemused.

"Neptune's beard, it's like when you say Hades instead of hell or when Hagrid says something like 'gulpin' gargoyles!'" Bella did her best imitation of the giant man's voice. "And we completely forgot about that map Fred and George have! I don't know where any of the secret passages are but they're on their map and they know which ones lead where and which one's we can't go through because they collapsed or Filch knows about them!"

"Oh, you're right," Harry said. "Why didn't we think of that before?"

"They're probably at Hogsmeade, though," Maddy pointed out with a sigh.

"Well, we'll just have to wait until the next trip, but we can still go!" Bella exclaimed happily.

" _Psst_ ," someone said from around a corner. They each turned and saw the head of Fred -or maybe George- Weasley poking out from an empty classroom a few feet away. "Come here," he waved them toward him, and they quickly filed into the classroom where the other Weasley twin was sitting on a desk.

"Why aren't you two at Hogsmeade?" Bella asked.

Fred then replied, "Well, seeing as you three haven't been to Hogsmeade yet-"

"-we decided to stay back and give you a little festive cheer." George continued, pulling his map out of a hidden pocket in his robes and handing it to Harry.

"We're giving this to you, we've memorised it now, so there isn't much use in it to us anymore."

"Are you sure?" Harry asked.

"Absolutely, it's more useful for you now."

"Thanks," Bella grinned as Harry opened the map up. "Which way is the best to get to Hogsmeade?"

"There's a one eyed witch statue here," George pointed on the map. "There's a passage behind that."

"See you three in Honeydukes," Fred winked and the pair waltzed out of the room.

"Alright, let's go," Maddy said. "I can't wait for caramel and chocolate!"

"Christmas shopping, ahoy!" Bella exclaimed, jumping and clapping her hands together happily.

"I should probably get my invisibility cloak so no one knows we're there," Harry said.

"Fine," Maddy sighed, "but make it quick, I don't want to go there bad enough to shadow travel there but I do want to have time to be able to explore it since we're going."

"I wasn't planning on not being quick," Harry said. "Now, come on," he walked out of the door and Bella and Maddy followed quickly after him.

They walked up to Gryffindor Tower, Bella and Maddy waited outside while Harry went in to grab his invisibility cloak. When he reemerged they quickly made their way to the statue of the one eyed witch. No one was around, so Harry pulled the map out to see if anyone was nearby so they would have enough time to figure out _how_ to get into the secret passageway. Maddy looked over his shoulder at the map and saw that the three dots labelled 'Madeline Mender,' 'Harry Potter' and 'Bellona Nevra' appeared to be speaking as they each tapped the statue, but Maddy couldn't make out what it was.

Harry pulled out his wand and tapped the statue, then said, " _Dissendium_." Thee statue's hump immediately began to open up and the three rushed into the passage before anyone could enter the corridor and see them.

They slid a considerable way down what felt like a stone slide, then landed on cold, damp earth. They stood up and look around. It was pitch dark. Bella and Harry held up their wands and said, " _Lumos_ ," and they saw that they were in a very narrow, low, earthy passageway.

"Whoa, nice," Maddy said under her breath. "I kind of want to live here."

"Why?" Bella asked, giving her a strange look.

"The underground is great, that's why I like the dungeons, they're underground."

"Yeah... okay..."

The passage twisted and turned, more like the burrow of a giant rabbit than anything else. It took ages, but eventually the passage began to rise. Panting, the trio sped up and ten minutes later, they came to the foot of some worn stone steps, which rose out of sight above them. Careful not to make any noise, they began to climb. There were so many steps that even Bella -who was ridiculously strong and athletic- was out of breath by the time Harry hit his head against the trapdoor into Honeydukes.

After listening closely for any hints that someone could have been in the store, very slowly, Harry pushed the trapdoor open and peered over the edge. He then scrambled out, followed by Maddy and Bella who found that they were in a cellar, which was full of wooden crates and boxes.

Harry unfolded his invisibility cloak and swept it over himself and Bella, causing Maddy to say, "I need to get under there too if we plan on leaving the store."

"But you can do that thing where you become invisible," Bella said.

"I don't become invisible, I go into the shadows and I can't do that outside of shadows and it's pretty sunny today so I can't exactly do it."

"Okay," Harry pulled the invisibility cloak off and threw it over himself and Bella again, but this time Maddy was under cloak. The three of them were squished tightly together and moved awkwardly as they walked up the wooden stairs, through the open door and into the shop.

"Oh my gods," Maddy gaped at the shelves upon shelves of sweets, her eyes latched to a shelf in particular full of different types of caramel. "I would think this is Olympus if I hadn't been there before."

"I think I see Ron and Hermione," Harry said and guided the other two through the crowd until they got to a table with a sign that said ' _UNUSUAL TASTES_ ' which was where Ron and Hermione were standing.

"Ugh, no, Harry won't want one of those, they're for vampires, I expect," Hermione was saying about some blood flavoured suckers.

"How about these?" said Ron, shoving a jar of Cockroach Clusters under Hermione's nose.

"Definitely not," said Harry. Ron nearly dropped the jar.

"Harry!" squealed Hermione. "What are you doing here?"

"Getting all the candy," Bella said.

"How-how did you get here?"

"Did you forget about the secret passages, Hermione?" Maddy asked. "Fred and George showed us one on that map of theirs. Also, it's Harry's map now."

"You aren't going to keep it, are you Harry?" Hermione asked. "You're going to hand it in to Professor McGonagall, aren't you?"

"No, I'm not!" Harry exclaimed.

"Are you mad?" said Ron, goggling at Hermione. "Hand in something that good?"

"If I hand it in, I'll have to say where I got it! Filch would know Fred and George had nicked it!"

"But what about Sirius Black?" Hermione hissed. "He could be using one of the passages on that map to get into the castle! The teachers have got to know!" "He can't be getting in through a passage," said Harry quickly. "There are seven secret tunnels on the map, right? Fred and George reckon Filch already knows about four of them. And of the other three - one of them's caved in, so no one can get through it. one of them's got the Whomping Willow planted over the entrance, so you can't get out of it. And the one I just came through, well it's really hard to see the entrance to it down in the cellar, so unless he knew it was there."

Ron cleared his throat significantly, and pointed to a notice pasted on the inside of the sweetshop door.

_BY ORDER OF THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC_

_Customers are reminded that until further notice, dementors will be patrolling the streets of Hogsmeade every night after sundown. This measure has been put in place for the safety of Hogsmeade residents and will be lifted upon the recapture of Sirius Black. It is therefore advisable that you complete your shopping well before nightfall._

_Merry Christmas!_

"See?" said Ron quietly. "I'd like to see Black try and break into Honeydukes with dementors swarming all over the village. Anyway, Hermione, the Honeydukes owners would hear a break-in, wouldn't they? They live over the shop!"

"Yes, but but-" Hermione seemed to be struggling to find another problem. "Look, Harry still shouldn't be coming into Hogsmeade and the same with Maddy and Bella. They haven't got signed forms! If anyone finds out, they'll be in so much trouble! And it's not nightfall yet, what if Sirius Black turns up today? Now?"

"I'm pretty sure Bella and I could could take a wizard..." Maddy replied.

"No, we could definitely take down a wizard," Bella agreed.

"Besides he'd have a job spotting Harry in this," said Ron, nodding through the mullioned windows at the thick, swirling snow. "Come on, Hermione, it's Christmas. They deserve a break."

Hermione bit her lip, looking extremely worried.

"Are you going to report us?" Harry asked her, grinning.

"Oh, of course not, but honestly, Harry-" she was interrupted by Ron launching off in a long talk about candy.

"Where's Elliot?" Bella asked.

"She spilt off pretty early on to hang out with her new friend," Hermione replied.

"Who?" Maddy asked.

"You know, the Hufflepuff she's been spending time with lately, Seo-yun Gorre, I think."

"Oh yeah," Bella nodded.

"Wait, who?" Maddy asked again.

"You don't pay attention to a lot of things, do you?" Hermione asked.

"I don't think so..."

"You know what I've always wondered..." Bella said as she eyed a nearby shelf of candies. "How easy it is to steal from a wizarding shop."

" _Bella!_ "

"I mean with non magical shops things are tagged so that there's an alarm that goes off and I never went shopping with my dad because the house elves pretty much do that for us so as long as there isn't an alarm for it."

" _W-_ "

"I'm game, let's do it," Maddy said quickly. "I take the chocolates, you take the hard candies."

"Deal!"

" _What are you doing!_ " Hermione shrieked.

"Relax," Bella laughed and clapped Hermione on the back. "We're only joking."

"I wasn't," Maddy muttered.

Once outside of Honeydukes, Maddy found that Hogsmeade was essentially the epitome of a Christmas card town, with the quaint houses and buildings covered in snow, wreaths of holly strung up on doors and strings of candles hung up across the roofs. Ron and Hermione pointed out all the stores they past, a post office, Zonko's Joke Shop and then the Shrieking Shack.

"Let's go up to the Shrieking Shack," Maddy grinned, pointing to the old mansion-like house.

"Tell you what," said Ron, his teeth chattering, "shall we go for a butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks?"

"Oh but-"

"It's _freezing_ , Maddy," Bella said. "We can go to there afterwards. Also, I'm pretty sure that I am about to freeze to death and I'm not even over exaggerating. How do people live in this coldness!"

"It's cold, but not _that_ cold," Ron said.

"I've always been in California during Christmas until I started here and I always stayed inside the nice warm castle and my nice warm house then, it doesn't even get cold enough to snow in California most of the time."

"Alright, to the Three Broomsticks," Maddy sighed.

Inside the building it was extremely crowded, noisy, warm, and smoky. Maddy hated it and as far as she could tell Bella wasn't enjoying it that much either. Actually, she seemed to be hating it more than Maddy as she had retracted in towards herself to tack up as little amount of room as she could while violently tugging as her collar.

A curvy sort of woman with a pretty face was serving a bunch of rowdy warlocks up at the bar. "That's Madam Rosmerta," said Ron. "I'll get the drinks, shall I?" he added, going slightly red.

Harry, Maddy, Bella and Hermione made their way to the back of the room, where there was a vacant table between the window and a handsome Christmas tree, which stood next to the fireplace. Ron came back five minutes later, carrying five foaming tankards of hot butterbeer.

"Merry Christmas!" he said happily, raising his tankard.

Maddy took a sip from her mug, immediately feeling a pleasant warm sensation run through her. The drink was thick, frothy and sweet. It was really good. When she looked at the others she found that Hermione was the only other one who had sipped their drink, Ron, Harry and Bella had gulped down about half of their drinks each.

The next moment a cold breeze swept through the Three Broomsticks as the door opened and McGonagall, Hagrid, Flitwick and then a man in a lime green bowler hat that Harry had later identifies as the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge walked in. Harry and Bella immediately dove down either under the table or behind the Christmas tree, but Maddy stayed put.

"Why aren't you hiding?" Harry hissed.

"Don't need to," she shrugged.

"But McGonagall knows you aren't supposed to be here," Hermione pointed out.

"Yeah, but if she sees me I can just shadow travel back into Hogwarts and it will be impossible for them to prove that I was actually here."

A woman's voice said, "A small gillywater-"

"Mine," said Professor McGonagall's voice.

"Four pints of mulled mead-"

"Ta, Rosmerta," said Hagrid.

"A cherry syrup and soda with ice and umbrella-"

"Mmm!" said Professor Flitwick, smacking his lips.

"So you'll be the red currant rum, Minister."

"Thank you, Rosmerta, m'dear," said Fudge's voice. "Lovely to see you again, I must say. Have one yourself, won't you? Come and join us..."

"Well, thank you very much, Minister." After she left and then returned again with her own drink. "So, what brings you to this neck of the woods, Minister?"

"What else, m'dear, but Sirius Black? I daresay you heard what happened up at the school at Halloween?"

"I did hear a rumor," admitted Madam Rosmerta.

"Did you tell the whole pub, Hagrid?" said Professor McGonagall exasperatedly.

"Do you think Blacks still in the area, Minister?" whispered Madam Rosmerta.

"I'm sure of it," said Fudge shortly.

"You know that the dementors have searched the whole village twice?" said Madam Rosmerta, a slight edge to her voice. "Scared all my customers away... It's very bad for business, Minister."

"Rosmerta, dear, I don't like them any more than you do," said Fudge uncomfortably. "Necessary precaution... unfortunate, but there you are... I've just met some of them. They're in a fury against Dumbledore - he won't let them inside the castle grounds."

"I should think not," said Professor McGonagall sharply. "How are we supposed to teach with those horrors floating around?"

"Hear, hear!" squeaked tiny Professor Flitwick, whose feet were dangling a foot from the ground.

"All the same," demurred Fudge, "they are here to protect you all from something much worse... We all know what Black's capable of..."

"Do you know, I still have trouble believing it," said Madam Rosmerta thoughtfully. "Of all the people to go over to the Dark Side, Sirius Black was the last I'd have thought... I mean, I remember him when he was a boy at Hogwarts. If you'd told me then what he was going to become, I'd have said you'd had too much mead."

"You don't know the half of it, Rosmerta," said Fudge gruffly. "The worst he did isn't widely known."

"The worst?" said Madam Rosmerta, her voice alive with curiosity, "Worse than murdering all those poor people, you mean?"

"I certainly do," said Fudge. "I can't believe that. What could possibly be worse?"

"You say you remember him at Hogwarts, Rosmerta," murmured Professor McGonagall. "Do you remember who his best friend was?"

"Naturally," said Madam Rosmerta, with a small laugh. "Never saw one without the other, did you? The number of times I had them in here - ooh, they used to make me laugh. Quite the double act, Sirius Black and James Potter!"

"Precisely," said Professor McGonagall. "Black and Potter. Ringleaders of their little gang. Both very bright, of course -exceptionally bright, in fact- but I don't think we've ever had such a pair of troublemakers-"

"I dunno," chuckled Hagrid. "Fred and George Weasley could give 'em a run fer their money."

"You'd have thought Black and Potter were brothers!" chimed in Professor Flitwick. "Inseparable!"

"Of course they were," said Fudge. "Potter trusted Black beyond all his other friends. Nothing changed when they left school. Black was best man when James married Lily. Then they named him godfather to Harry. Harry has no idea, of course. You can imagine how the idea would torment him."

"Because Black turned out to be in league with You-Know-Who?" whispered Madam Rosmerta.

"Worse even than that, m'dear..." Fudge dropped his voice and proceeded in a sort of low rumble. "Not many people are aware that the Potters knew You-Know-Who was after them. Dumbledore, who was of course working tirelessly against You-Know-Who, had a number of useful spies. One of them tipped him off, and he alerted James and Lily at once. He advised them to go into hiding. Well, of course, You-Know-Who wasn't an easy person to hide from. Dumbledore told them that their best chance was the Fidelius Charm."

"How does that work?" said Madam Rosmerta, breathless with interest. Professor Flitwick cleared his throat.

"An immensely complex spell," he said squeakily, "involving the magical concealment of a secret inside a single, living soul. The information is hidden inside the chosen person, or Secret-Keeper, and is henceforth impossible to find - unless, of course, the Secret-Keeper chooses to divulge it. As long as the Secret-Keeper refused to speak, You-Know-Who could search the village where Lily and James were staying for years and never find them, not even if he had his nose pressed against their sitting room window!"

"So Black was the Potters' Secret-Keeper?" whispered Madam Rosmerta.

"Naturally," said Professor McGonagall. "James Potter told Dumbledore that Black would die rather than tell where they were, that Black was planning to go into hiding himself and yet, Dumbledore remained worried. I remember him offering to be the Potters' Secret-Keeper himself."

"He suspected Black?" gasped Madam Rosmerta.

"He was sure that somebody close to the Potters had been keeping You-Know-Who informed of their movements," said Professor McGonagall darkly. "Indeed, he had suspected for some time that someone on our side had turned traitor and was passing a lot of information to You-Know-Who."

"But James Potter insisted on using Black?"

"He did," said Fudge heavily. "And then, barely a week after the Fidelius Charm had been performed-"

"Black betrayed them?" breathed Madam Rosmerta.

"He did indeed. Black was tired of his double-agent role, he was ready to declare his support openly for You-Know-Who, and he seems to have planned this for the moment of the Potters' death. But, as we all know, You-Know-Who met his downfall in little Harry Potter. Powers gone, horribly weakened, he fled. And this left Black in a very nasty position indeed. His master had fallen at the very moment when he, Black, had shown his true colors as a traitor. He had no choice but to run for it-"

"Filthy, stinkin' turncoat!" Hagrid said, so loudly that half the bar went quiet.

"Shh!" said Professor McGonagall.

"I met him!" growled Hagrid. "I musta bin the last ter see him before he killed all them people! It was me what rescued Harry from Lily an' James's house after they was killed! jus' got him outta the ruins, poor little thing, with a great slash across his forehead, an' his parents dead... an' Sirius Black turns up, on that flyin' motorbike he used ter ride. Never occurred ter me what he was doin' there. I didn' know he'd bin Lily an' James's Secret-Keeper. Thought he'd jus' heard the news o' You-Know-Who's attack an' come ter see what he could do. White an' shakin', he was. An' yeh know what I did? I COMFORTED THE MURDERIN' TRAITOR!" Hagrid roared.

"Hagrid, please!" said Professor McGonagall. "Keep your voice down!"

"How was I ter know he wasn' upset abou' Lily an' James? It was You-Know-Who he cared abou'! An' then he says, 'Give Harry ter me, Hagrid, I'm his godfather, I'll look after him,' Ha! But I'd had me orders from Dumbledore, an' I told Black no, Dumbledore said Harry was ter go ter his aunt an' uncle's. Black argued, but in the end he gave in. Told me ter take his motorbike ter get Harry there. 'I won't need it anymore,' he said.

"I shoulda known there was somethin' fishy goin' on then. He loved that motorbike, what was he givin' it ter me for? Why wouldn' he need it anymore? Fact was, it was too easy ter trace. Dumbledore knew he'd bin the Potters' Secret-Keeper. Black knew he was goin' ter have ter run fer it that night, knew it was a matter o' hours before the Ministry was after him.

"But what if I'd given Harry to him, eh? I bet he'd 've pitched him off the bike halfway out ter sea. His bes' friends' son! But when a wizard goes over ter the Dark Side, there's nothin' and no one that matters to em anymore..."

A long silence followed Hagrid's story. Then Madam Rosmerta said with some satisfaction, "But he didn't manage to disappear, did he? The Ministry of Magic caught up with him next day!"

"Alas, if only we had," said Fudge bitterly. "It was not we who found him. It was little Peter Pettigrew -another of the Potters' friends. Maddened by grief, no doubt, and knowing that Black had been the Potters' Secret-Keeper, he went after Black himself."

"Pettigrew... that fat little boy who was always tagging along after them at Hogwarts?" said Madam Rosmerta.

"Hero-worshipped Black and Potter," said Professor McGonagall. "Never quite in their league, talent-wise. I was often rather harsh with him. You can imagine how I - how I regret that now..." She sounded as though she had a sudden head cold and Maddy could see that she was dabbing at her eyes.

"There, now, Minerva," said Fudge kindly, "Pettigrew died a hero's death. Eyewitnesses -Muggles, of course, we wiped their, memories later- told us how Pettigrew cornered Black. They say he was sobbing, 'Lily and James, Sirius! How could you?' And then he went for his wand. Well, of course, Black was quicker. Blew Pettigrew to smithereens..."

Professor McGonagall blew her nose and said thickly, "Stupid boy... foolish boy... he was always hopeless at dueling... should have left it to the Ministry..."

"I tell yeh, if I'd got ter Black before little Pettigrew did, I wouldn't've messed around with wands - I'd 've ripped him limb - from - limb," Hagrid growled.

"You don't know what you're talking about, Hagrid," said Fudge sharply. "Nobody but trained Hit Wizards from the Magical Law Enforcement Squad would have stood a chance against Black once he was cornered. I was Junior Minister in the Department of Magical Catastrophes at the time, and I was one of the first on the scene after Black murdered all those people. I - I will never forget it. I still dream about it sometimes. A crater in the middle of the street, so deep it had cracked the sewer below. Bodies everywhere. Muggles screaming. And Black standing there laughing, with what was left of Pettigrew in front of him... a heap of bloodstained robes and a few - a few fragments-" Fudge's voice stopped abruptly and all five of them blew their noses.

"Well, there you have it, Rosmerta," said Fudge thickly. "Black was taken away by twenty members of the Magical Law Enforcement Squad and Pettigrew received the Order of Merlin, First Class, which I think was some comfort to his poor mother. Blacks been in Azkaban ever since." Madam Rosmerta let out a long sigh.

"Is it true he's mad, Minister?"

"I wish I could say that he was," said Fudge slowly. "I certainly believe his master's defeat unhinged him for a while. The murder of Pettigrew and all those Muggles was the action of a cornered and desperate man -cruel... pointless. Yet I met Black on my last inspection of Azkaban. You know, most of the prisoners in there sit muttering to themselves in the dark; there's no sense in them... but I was shocked at how normal Black seemed. He spoke quite rationally to me. It was unnerving. You'd have thought he was merely bored - asked if I'd finished with my newspaper, cool as you please, said he missed doing the crossword. Yes, I was astounded at how little effect the dementors seemed to be having on him and he was one of the most heavily guarded in the place, you know. Dementors outside his door day and night."

"But what do you think he's broken out to do?" said Madam Rosmerta. "Good gracious, Minister, he isn't trying to rejoin You-Know-Who, is he?"

"I daresay that is his, er, eventual plan," said Fudge evasively. "But we hope to catch Black long before that. I must say, You-Know-Who alone and friendless is one thing... but give him back his most devoted servant, and I shudder to think how quickly he'll rise again..."

"You know, Cornelius, if you're dining with the headmaster, you'd better head back up to the castle," said Professor McGonagall.

One by one, they each left and Madam Rosmerta went back to her job.

"I'm going to go ahead back just in case," Maddy sighed, sitting up and stretching out her back. "We'll go to the Shrieking Shack next time. Also, sorry, Harry you have to bad luck of a demigod. Bye." With that she shadow travelled away, landing in an empty corridor.


	5. New Kids

The minute Maddy had landed in Camp Half Blood for her break Annabeth had quickly said, "WE FOUND PERCY!" and she was told to go to the Grand Canyon if she wanted to help. This was a no brainer for Maddy, while she would like to relax she desperately wanted to find her cousin, though she decided to wait to go so she wouldn't be there an hour before Annabeth and Butch, a bulky son of Iris.

* * *

When Maddy arrived at the Grand Canyon no one was there, maybe she had been a bit too early after all, so she ended up walking around, avoiding the edges as whenever she got within a foot of them she began to panic. Kind of a lot. Eventually, she found herself inside the museum by the canyon and she saw a very familiar, short man holding a baseball bat.

She walked over to the man and said, " _Coach Hedge?_ "

"What're you doing here, cupcake?" He asked gruffly. "Aren't you supposed to be at your magic school?"

"I just got out like an hour ago, what are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same."

"Annabeth's coming soon, so who's the demigod because I was told Percy was here and I'm not seeing a Percy."

"Valdez," Hedge pointed to a hispanic boy with curly hair who was making _working_ helicopters out of pipe cleaners -"holy shit" Maddy said at this- "McLean," a girl with choppy brown hair and a side braid, "That one appeared today," he pointed a a muscular blond guy who somehow looked vaguely familiar.

"Okay, so, I'm just going to hang back until Annabeth gets here."

The school moved outside to look at the canyon and finish up their worksheets or something and Maddy followed, sitting down a few feet away from the demigods, who she learned were named Piper McLean, Jason Grace and Leo Valdez. At one point Jason got up and Hedge followed him, most likely interrogating him, but before they could get back the canyon began to rumble and violently shake. People screamed and ran away from the gorge while Maddy forced herself to stay there.

There was a storm forming one that sent chills through Maddy and was quickly turning into a miniature hurricane.

Instinctively, Maddy yanked off her spear pendant, ready to fight.

Leo lost his balance and almost toppled over the railing, but Jason grabbed his jacket and pulled him back.

"Thanks, man!" Maddy could just barely hear Leo yell over the wind.

"Go, go, go!" Coach Hedge thundered.

Piper and a guy were holding the doors open, herding the other kids inside, Maddy began to move to the doors as well but it was like moving through quicksand.

Before she could get to the door Piper and the boy lost their grips and the doors slammed shut.

Piper tried to open them but she couldn't and the boy wasn't helping.

"Dylan, help!" Piper shouted.

Dylan just stood there with an idiotic grin, his Cowboys jersey rippling in the wind, like he was suddenly enjoying the storm. Oh gods.

"Sorry, Piper," he said. "I'm done helping."

He flicked his wrist, and Piper flew backward, slamming into the doors and sliding to the skywalk deck.

Oh gods no! Maddy screamed internally, she couldn't do _anything_ to wind monsters, her spear just went right through them! Not to mention she was on the _Grand Canyon_. Her spear went back to it's smaller form on her camp necklace.

"Piper!" Jason tried to charge forward, but the wind was against him, and Coach Hedge pushed him back.

"Coach," Jason said, "let me go!"

"Jason, Leo, stay behind me," Coach ordered. "This is my fight. I should've known that was our monster."

"What?" Leo demanded. A rogue worksheet slapped him in the face, but he swatted it away. "What monster? And who is that?" He pointed at me.

"I'm just an asshole named Maddy," Maddy replied. "Also, Coach, my spear doesn't work on wind monsters, it just goes right through them."

"You just came from a magic school, cupcake, I'm sure you can think of something!" Coach Hedge yelled, his cap blew off, revealing his satyr horns and his bat had turned into a club with branches and leaves protruding from it. Maddy stuffed her hand into her pocket and extracted her wand.

Dylan gave him a creepy happy smile. "Oh, come on, Coach. Let the boy attack me!" He gestured to Jason. "After all, you're getting too old for this. Isn't that why they retired you to this stupid school? I've been on your team the entire season, and you didn't even know. You're losing your nose, grandpa."

The coach made an angry bleating noise. "That's it, cupcake. You're going down."

"You think you can protect three half-bloods at once, old man?" Dylan laughed. "Good luck."

Dylan pointed at Leo, and a funnel cloud materialized around him. Leo flew off the skywalk like he'd been tossed. Somehow he managed to twist in midair, and slammed sideways into the canyon wall. He skidded, clawing furiously for any handhold. Finally he grabbed a thin ledge about fifty feet below the skywalk and hung there by his fingertips.

"Help!" he yelled up at them. "Rope, please? Bungee cord? Something?"

Coach moved to help him but Maddy first aimed her wand at him and said, " _Wingardium leviosa_!" Leo yelped in alarm as Maddy maneuvered him up the canyon wall and then sat him down a safe distance away from ledge as Hedge attempted to attack Dylan.

"Whoa," Leo said, standing up. "How'd you do that?"

"Magic," Maddy replied.

"Neat!"

"Now isn't really the time to discuss how amazing I am!"

Coach Hedge suddenly zoomed past them, his club had flown out of his hand and his fake feet at fallen off.

"He's a faun," Jason said. He was holding Hedge's club.

" _Satyr_ ," Maddy corrected. "If he could hear you he would probably throw you into the canyon for saying such a thing."

"Now it's your turn, boy," Dylan snarled. Jason threw the club and it went right through Dylan.

"Okay, this probably won't work on him and I probably won't even be able to cast the spell but it's worth a try," Maddy mumbled to herself. " _Confingo!"_ She shouted, her wand steadily aimed at Dylan, a short, small, weak stream of fire shot out of her wand but then fizzled down into nothing before even getting close to the monster. "Fuck me!"

"Nice try, kids." He glared at Jason and Maddy. "But you'll have to do better."

The skywalk shuddered. Hairline fractures appeared in the glass. Inside the museum, kids stopped banging on the doors. They backed away, watching in terror.

Dylan's body dissolved into smoke, as if his molecules were coming unglued. He had the same face, the same brilliant white smile, but his whole form was suddenly composed of swirling black vapor, his eyes like electrical sparks in a living storm cloud. He sprouted black smoky wings and rose above the skywalk.

"Why an _anemoi thuellai_?" Maddy muttered to herself. "Why couldn't it have been a regular wind monster. Why an _anemoi thuellai_?"

"You're a ventus," Jason said. "A storm spirit."

Dylan's laugh sounded like a tornado tearing off a roof. "I'm glad I waited, demigod. Leo and Piper I've known about for weeks. Could've killed them at any time. But my mistress said a third was coming - someone special. She'll reward me greatly for your death!"

Two more funnel clouds touched down on either side of Dylan and turned into _anemoi thuellai_ \- ghostly young men with smoky wings and eyes that flickered with lightning.

Maddy stared at the _anemoi thuellai_ , she honestly had no idea how to stop them, on her year and a half long hunt for lycanthropes she had come across _one_ in Maine and how she dealt with it was by running, far away, until they got back to New York and could go on the underground to then go farther away.

Suddenly, a lightning bolt was sent right _through_ Jason, he was knocked to his back and singing but mostly unhurt, in fact he didn't seem hurt at all except for his left foot, the shoe had been blown off and his foot was all black.

Piper was desperately swinging the club to fend off the two extra storm spirits, but they were just toying with her. The club went right through their bodies like they weren't there. Leo stared at everything happening, with no weapon and nothing to do and Maddy was thinking furiously through all the spells she knew, unfortunately there weren't really a lot of spells that could work on mostly incorporeal entities that still managed to physically attack people.

"How are you alive?" Dylan's form flickered. "That was enough lightning to kill twenty men!"

"My turn," Jason said.

He reached in his pocket and pulled out the gold coin. He flipped the coin in the air like he'd done it a thousand times. He caught it in his palm, and suddenly he was holding a sword -a incredibly sharp double-edged weapon and the whole thing was gold- hilt, handle, and blade.

"Can you make lightning?" Leo asked.

"Why?" Maddy replied.

"Well if they can make lightning maybe it can hurt them?"

"I don't know if it works like that but it's worth a try," she aimed her wand said, "There's about a fifty percent chance that I could hit Jason, he is kind of really erratic..."

"Well then don't shoot!"

"You saw that he wasn't hurt by the lightning, it'll be fine. _Baub_ \- what the Hades?" Jason had just swung at one of the _anemoi thuellai_ and it turned into shimmering golden dust. _Anemoi thuellai_ weren't affected by the majority of solid things, how did that happen?

The second spirit let loose a bolt of lightning, but Jason's blade absorbed the charge. Jason stepped in, one quick thrust, and the second storm spirit dissolved into gold powder. Dylan wailed in outrage. He looked down as if expecting his comrades to re-form, but their gold dust remains dispersed in the wind. "Impossible! Who are you, half-blood?"

Piper was so stunned she dropped her club. "Jason, how...?"

Then Coach Hedge leaped back onto the skywalk with his club.

"Spirits, fear me!" Hedge bellowed, flexing his short arms. Then he looked around and realized there was only Dylan.

"Curse it, boy!" he snapped at Jason. "Didn't you leave some for me? I like a challenge!"

"Yo, Coach Supergoat, whatever you are, you just fell down the freaking Grand Canyon! Stop asking for challenges!" Leo exclaimed.

"You have no idea how many enemies you've awakened, halfbloods. My mistress will destroy all demigods. This war you cannot win," Dylan snarled.

Above them, the storm exploded into a full-force gale. Cracks expanded in the skywalk. Sheets of rain poured down, and Jason had to crouch to keep his balance. A hole opened in the clouds - a swirling vortex of black and silver.

"The mistress calls me back!" Dylan shouted with glee. "And you, demigod, will come with me!" He lunged at Jason, but Piper tackled the monster from behind. Even though he was made of smoke, Piper somehow managed to connect. Both of them went sprawling.

Leo, Jason, Maddy and the coach surged forward to help, but the spirit screamed with rage. He let loose a torrent that knocked them all backward. Jason and Coach Hedge landed on their butts. Jason's sword skidded across the glass. Leo hit the back of his head and curled on his side, dazed and groaning. Maddy skidded all the way to the railing, her back slamming against a rod, her limbs hanging over the edge and her wand falling deeper into the canyon. Piper got the worst of it. She was thrown off Dylan's back and hit the railing, tumbling over the side until she was hanging by one hand over the abyss.

Jason started toward her, but Dylan screamed, "I'll settle for this one!" He grabbed Leo's arm and began to rise, towing a half-conscious Leo below him. The storm spun faster, pulling them upward like a vacuum cleaner.

"Help!" Piper yelled. "Somebody!" Then she slipped, screaming as she fell.

"Jason, go!" Hedge yelled. "Save her!"

The coach launched himself at the spirit, lashing out with his hooves, knocking Leo free from the spirit's grasp. Leo dropped safely to the floor, but Dylan grappled the coach's arms instead. Hedge tried to head-butt him, then kicked him and called him a cupcake. They rose into the air, gaining speed.

Coach Hedge shouted down once more, "Save her! I got this!" Then the satyr and the storm spirit spiraled into the clouds and disappeared.

Maddy stared down into the canyon, wondering if it was worth it. It was a new wand, she liked it, wands were expensive, what if she didn't have time to go to Diagon Alley before school got back?

Jason suddenly dove over the edge of the canyon.

Maddy looked over at Leo and said, "If you see lightning I'm probably dead so tell a girl named Annabeth that I am."

"Okay," Leo said weakly.

Maddy shadow travelled to the bottom of the canyon, hundreds of feet above her Jason was hovering with Piper in his arms. Maddy searched for her wand and eventually found it -well part of it- on the edge of the rocks and the raging river, it was snapped in half an she could only assumed that the other part had been pushed downstream by the current.

She sadly went back up to the top of the canyon where Leo, Piper and Jason were standing.

"What happened? The tornado guy, the gold sword ... I hit my head. That's it, right? I'm hallucinating?" Leo asked desperately.

Jason walked over to where his sword was lying and picked it up. He flipped it. Midspin, the sword shrank back into a coin and landed in his palm.

"Yep," Leo said. "Definitely hallucinating."

Piper shivered in her rain-soaked clothes. "Jason, those things-"

" _Venti_ ," he said. "Storm spirits."

"Okay. You acted like... like you'd seen them before. Who _are_ you?"

He shook his head. "That's what I've been trying to tell you. I don't know."

The storm dissipated. The other kids from the school were staring out the glass doors in horror. Security guards were working on the locks now, but they didn't seem to be having any luck.

"Coach Hedge said he had to protect three people," Jason remembered. "I think he meant us."

"And that thing Dylan turned into..." Piper shuddered. "God, I can't believe it was _hitting_ on me. He called us... what, demigods?"

"I don't know what _demi_ means," Leo said, "but I'm not feeling very godly right now."

"Demi means part," Maddy said. "And us demigods don't really feel godly much. It's mostly just 'oh gods why is everything so awful? Oh well, guess I btter go deal with this asshole monster.'"

"So, do you think you could actually explain who exactly you are?" Piper asked.

"Oh yeah, sure. I'm Maddy Mender, I'm a daughter of Hades, I go to a magic school in Scotland and I came here because I was told that my cousin was here, but he's not. His girlfriend should be here soon, and she's kind of murderous right now. She may or may not throw all three of you into the canyon."

"Good to know," Jason said.

"Yup."

There was a brittle sound like dry twigs snapping, and the cracks in the skywalk began to widen.

"We need to get off this thing," Jason said. "Maybe if we-"

"Ohhh-kay," Leo interrupted. "Look up there and tell me if those are flying horses."

"Hedge told me an extraction squad was coming for us," Jason said.

"Extraction squad?" Leo struggled to his feet. "That sounds painful."

"And where are they extracting us to?" Piper asked.

"Camp Half Blood, it's a safe place," Maddy replied.

A golden chariot began to descend from the sky, Annabeth leaped off before the chariot had even finished moving. She pulled a knife and ran toward Jason's group while Butch was reining in the horses.

"Where is he?" she demanded.

"Not here," Maddy replied, pulling Annabeth off of him.

"What about Gleeson? Where is your protector, Gleeson Hedge?"

"He got taken by some... tornado things," Leo said.

" _Venti_ ," Jason said. "Storm spirits."

Annabeth arched an eyebrow. "You mean _anemoi thuellai_? That's the Greek term. Who are you, and what happened?"

The four of them explained, Jason continually said the Roman named for things and Maddy would correct him. It was weird.

When they had finished their story, Annabeth didn't look satisfied. "No, no, no! She told me he would be here. She told me if I came here, I'd find the answer."

"Annabeth," Butch grunted. "Check it out." He pointed at Jason's feet. "The guy with one shoe. He's the answer."

"Wait what?" Maddy asked.

"No, Butch," Annabeth insisted, ignoring Maddy. "He can't be. I was tricked." She glared at the sky as though it had done something wrong. "What do you want from me?" she screamed. "What have you done with him?"

The skywalk shuddered, and the horses whinnied urgently.

"Is she okay?" Leo asked quietly.

"Yeah, I think so but I actually have no idea what's going on. I just got to camp and she screamed in my face that she'd found Percy so..."

"Annabeth," said Butch, "we gotta leave. Let's get these three to camp and figure it out there. Those storm spirits might come back."

She fumed for a moment. "Fine." She fixed Jason with a resentful look. "We'll settle this later." She turned on her heel and marched toward the chariot.

Piper shook her head. "What's her problem? What's going on?"

"Seriously," Leo agreed.

"Annabeth's actually pretty great, she's just stressed out lately, her boyfriend disappeared out of thin air so..."

"We have to get you out of here," Butch said. "I'll explain more on the way."

"I'm not going anywhere with her." Jason gestured toward the blonde. "She looks like she wants to kill me."

"She always looks like that," Maddy added.

Butch hesitated. "You gotta cut her some slack. She had a vision telling her to come here, to find a guy with one shoe. That was supposed to be the answer to her problem."

"That's vaguer than most visions," Maddy said as the others loaded into the chariot.

"Why aren't you getting in?" Piper asked.

"Because we'll all die if I do," she replied and shadow travelled back to Camp Half Blood without waiting for a response.

* * *

There was a loud _BOOM_ and a huge wave of water as the flying chariot slammed into the lake. Maddy was one of many who was standing by the lake, watching Annabeth, Butch, Piper, Leo and Jason emerge from the lake. Will Solas, a son of Apollo, was shoving his way through the crowd with a furious expression.

"Annabeth!" He shouted. "I said you could borrow the chariot, not destroy it!"

"Will, I'm sorry," Annabeth sighed. "I'll get it fixed, I promise."

Will scowled at his broken chariot. Then he sized up Piper, Leo, and Jason. "These are the ones? Way older than thirteen. Why haven't they been claimed already?"

"Claimed?" Leo asked.

Before Annabeth could explain, Will said, "Any sign of Percy?"

"No," Annabeth admitted.

Drew Tanaka, a daughter of Aphrodite, spoke next, saying, "Well, I hope they're worth the trouble."

Leo snorted. "Gee, thanks. What are we, your new pets?"

"No kidding," Jason said. "How about some answers before you start judging us - like, what is this place, why are we here, how long do we have to stay?"

"Jason," Annabeth said, "I promise we'll answer your questions. And Drew all demigods are worth saving. But I'll admit, the trip didn't accomplish what I hoped."

"Hey," Piper said, "we didn't ask to be brought here."

Drew sniffed, oh gods here it comes. "And nobody wants you, hon. Does your hair always look like a dead badger?" Yep, typical Drew.

Piper stepped forward, looking ready to smack her, but Annabeth said, "Piper, stop. We need to make our new arrivals feel welcome," Annabeth said, with another pointed look at Drew.

"We'll assign them each a guide, give them a tour of camp. Hopefully by the campfire tonight, they'll be claimed."

"Would somebody tell me what claimed means?" Piper asked.

Suddenly there was a collective gasp. The campers backed away. Floating over Leo's head was a blazing holographic image -a fiery hammer.

"That," Annabeth said, "is claiming."

"What'd I do?" Leo backed toward the lake. Then he glanced up and yelped. "Is my hair on fire?" He ducked, but the symbol followed him, bobbing and weaving so it looked like he was trying to write something in flames with his head.

"This can't be good," Butch muttered. "The curse-" Maddy really hated being out of the loop, she couldn't believe what she'd missed in the three months she'd been gone.

"Butch, shut up," Annabeth said. "Leo, you've just been claimed-"

"By a god," Jason interrupted. "That's the symbol of Vulcan, isn't it?"

All eyes turned to him.

"Jason," Annabeth said carefully, "how did you know that?"

"I'm not sure."

"Vulcan?" Leo demanded. "I don't even LIKE _Star Trek_. What are you talking about?"

"Vulcan is the Roman name for Hephaestus," Annabeth said, "the god of blacksmiths and fire."

The fiery hammer faded, but Leo kept swatting the air like he was afraid it was following him. "The god of what? Who?"

Annabeth turned to Will. "Will, would you take Leo, give him a tour? Introduce him to his bunk-mates in Cabin Nine."

"Sure, Annabeth."

"What's Cabin Nine?" Leo asked. "And I'm not a Vulcan!"

"Come on, Mr Spock, I'll explain everything." Will put a hand on his shoulder and steered him off toward the cabins.

Annabeth turned her attention back to Jason. She studied him more like he was a complicated blueprint. Finally she said, "Hold out your arm." Jason did as she said and held out his arm. "I've never seen marks like this," Annabeth said. "Where did you get them?"

Jason shook his head. "I'm getting really tired of saying this, but I don't know."

Maddy edged forward to get a look at Jason's arm, it was dark and impossible to miss, it was a dozen straight lines like a barcode, and over that an eagle with the letters SPQR.

"I think I recognize that," Maddy gasped.

"You do?" Annabeth asked.

"I just need to double check," Maddy moved away from the crowd and went back to her cabin, rooting around in her pocket for a drachma. Once I had fished one out of my pocket I realized that I no longer had a wand and couldn't make a rainbow. She cursed under her breath and left her cabin so she could find someone who _could_ make one.

"Hey, Butch!" She shouted at the muscly son of Iris.

"Oh, hey, Maddy," he replied.

"Hey, my wand kind of broke so I need a rainbow."

"Oh, no problem," Butch snapped his fingers and a rainbow appeared beside him.

"Thanks," Maddy gave him a thumbs up and tossed the drachma into the ray of colours. Butch waved and walked away as Maddy said, "Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering, show me Bellona Nevra."

The rainbow changed and shifted until it showed a red haired girl in what looked to be a small room made of ceramic.

"Maddy?" Bella asked.

"Yeah, where are you?"

"An airplane bathroom."

"That sounds terrifying."

"What part? The airplane or the bathroom?"

"It's obviously the bathroom, Bella," Maddy rolled her eyes.

"Shut up, what do you want, Maddy?"

"Can I see that tattoo on your arm?"

Bella stared at Maddy for a moment and then slowly said, "What tattoo...?"

"The one on your arm."

"What-"

"Bella, did you forget that I know that you're a demigod?"

"Oh yeah! Yeah I forgot. Here, why?" She pulled up the sleeve of her coat, revealing a tattoo almost identical to Jason's that Maddy had spotted on several occasions on her arm.

"Well, this guy just appeared with that same tattoo and-"

"Definitely a member of Camp Jupiter, I haven't gotten word of anyone missing but- oh shit, someone's in desperate need of the bathroom, gotta go." She shimmered out of existence.

"Damn it," Maddy muttered.

* * *

In the time Maddy had been at camp Piper had gotten claimed by Aphrodite and Jason by Zeus, which would have honestly been stranger if he wasn't the fifth child of the big three to arrive at Camp Half Blood. Maddy didn't hear anything back from Bella and the day after Piper was claimed, she, Leo and Jason went off on a quest. Then Maddy shadow travelled to Diagon Alley, heading for Ollivander.

"Ah, Miss Mender," Ollivander said as she entered the shop. "Is your new wand working out alright?"

"Yeah, it was," Maddy replied.

"And what happened?"

"It kind of fell into the Grand Canyon and broke in half."

"I see..." Ollivander said, walking through his shelves of wands and coming back with a box. "Try this, aspen, unicorn hair, 10⅓ inches."

"Isn't that just ⅓ of an inch longer than my old wand and that's the only difference?"

"Well, I assume you haven't changed much in the last three months."

"Yeah, I guess so," Maddy casted a few spells with the wand, it responded positively and she bought it for seven galleons.

A few days later she shadow travelled back to Hogwarts.

This time, however, instead of waiting for the evening as she had done for the past two years, Maddy arrived at the magic school at about the time that the other students were arriving. She wasn't aware that it would work out like that and was immensely glad that she had shadow travelled just barely into the woods so the others couldn't see her appearing out of thin air.

Maddy quickly joined the crowd of chattering teenagers, searching the crowd for either Bella's massive void of red hair or Elliot's tall stature.

Just as she had walked through the large front doors Maddy felt someone grab her shoulders and begin to pull her. She shriek and reflexively punched her assailant.

And it was just Bella.

"Oh shit, sorry," Maddy apologised.

"No, it's fine," Bella waved her of, gripping her nose. "I should have expected that. I don't know why I did that. But, just come with me, we have to talk."

"Yeah, alright, fine," Maddy said. "Just don't touch me without warning."

"Yeah, I know, come on." Bella guided Maddy away from the others and into an empty classroom.

"First thing first," she said. "I'm sorry I didn't respond at all, I was busy and distracted and just never in a good position for contact. Secondly," Bella continued too fast for Maddy to reply, "there's a camper missing. His name is Jason Grace, he's a son of Jupiter, blond hair, kinda muscle-y."

"Yeah, that's definitely him," Maddy nodded.

"Okay, well, Mads, you do realise that you do have time to go get him and take him to Camp Jupiter."

"Yes, but, Bell, there is one thing about that. I have no clue where he is."

"Gods, you've lost him already! I.M. him and ask him where he is!"

"Are you kidding me? I'm not interfering with a quest, who do you think I am?"

"Alright, fine. Now, another piece of very vague information. I don't know a lot about this kid since I only got a look at him before I left for my dad's. I was able to notice that he has two features that you and Jason have that I'm suspecting have something to do with being children of the big three. He had a sharp nose, some kind of eye shape that you and Jason have and honestly A-plus cheekbones."

"That's not very helpful, that could be anyone," Maddy replied. "Also, I do have very excellent cheekbones."

"Yes, I am aware of both of those thing, now, let's go catch up with the buds." Bella opened the door and walked out, Maddy followed and they walked up to the library, where they found Elliot and Hermione, but not Harry and Ron.

"Hey, guys," Maddy said slowly as the two demigods joined their friends at the table.

"Hey," Elliot said without looking up from her book.

Hermione looked up and said, "Hi," brightly.

"Where are Harry and Ron?" Bella asked.

"No clue," Hermione replied in an uncharacteristic haughty and dismissive tone.

"What happened?"

"Harry got a Firebolt for Christmas," Elliot replied. Maddy was about to say something about how that didn't seem too bad but then Elliot continued, "From an unknown person. Hermione thinks that it could be from Sirius Black and probably cursed, so she told McGonagall and she took it away from them so she and Flitwick could look over it for any curses. Harry and Ron are mad at her."

"And what's your stance?" Maddy asked her.

"I'm with Hermione, duh. I don't want Harry to die."

"That's surprisingly kind of you," Bella commented.

"Harry's the reason a whole lot of amazingly fun shit happens to us and I want to ride that thing, I'm not getting on a cursed broom."

"Aaaaand... there she is."

"What are your opinions on this?" Hermione asked.

"This is probably just my severe fear of heights speaking," Maddy began, "but I think you should always make sure that you're safe when in the sky."

"I think that makes perfect sense," Bella nodded. "But I do understand where Harry and Ron are coming from. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to go find them and talk to them." She quickly stood up and exited the library before anyone could reply.

* * *

The next morning as Maddy and Elliot entered the Great Hall for breakfast Hermione briskly walked in front of them, grabbing Elliot's arm and pulling her towards the Slytherin table, so Maddy followed and instead of doing their usual thing and sitting with the Gryffindors they sat with their own house.

"Hermione, why?" Elliot asked.

"I won't sit with those imbeciles," she huffed and sat down in a relatively empty part of the table. Maddy could hear Malfoy making comments about her sitting there, but she decided to block him out, and apparently Hermione had too as she didn't reply to him.

"Okay, but we could just sit at the other end of the Gryffindor table," Maddy pointed out.

"The entire house is mad at me since Harry might not get his broom back before the next match," Hermione replied. "Only the really bad Slytherins hate me."

"A good enough point, I guess," Elliot shrugged and began to dole out food onto her plate.

"Miss Mender," someone said and Maddy turned around to see Professor McGonagall, holding a book and a piece of parchment. "We've changed your schedule so you are taking Care of Magical Creatures in place of Divination, here is your new schedule and your book."

"Oh, thanks," Maddy took the offered items. "A quick question, professor. Why did it take so long to change my schedule?"

"It took quite a while to find a place that sells this book. A lot of places stopped stocking it."

"Oh, thanks again, professor," Maddy smiled and looked over her new schedule as McGonagall walked back to the teachers table. Her timetable wasn't much different, the only difference was that, of course, Divination wasn't on it and Care of Magical Creatures was. "I have officially escaped," she said to Elliot and Hermione.

"Congrats," Elliot said.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maddy has the actual worst luck, someone help her
> 
> Also, I made profiles for my characters on toyhouse ( toyhou .se / postmortempixie / characters / folder:110419 / order:name /1 ) Elliot's profile isn't very detailed yet but that'll be fixed, I swear.


	6. Buckbeak

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have drawings of Maddy, Bella and Elliot on my Toyhouse ( toyhou. se/ postmortempixie/ characters/ folder: 110419/ order: name/ 1 )

At eight that night, Maddy went to Binns' classroom, as she had been told to go earlier that day, finding that Harry and Bella were there already. She said a quick hello to each of them before Lupin entered the room, carrying a large packing case that he placed on Binns' desk.

"What's that?" Harry asked.

"Another boggart," said Lupin, stripping off his cloak. "I've been combing the castle ever since Tuesday, and very luckily, I found this one lurking inside Mr Filch's filing cabinet. It's the nearest we'll get to a real dementor. The boggart will turn into a dementor when he sees you, so we'll be able to practice on him. I can store him in my office when we're not using him; there's a cupboard under my desk he'll like."

"Okay," said Harry.

"You stay five feet ahead of me," Maddy whispered to him.

"Yeah me, too," Bella agreed.

"Are you two sure you don't want a go at the boggart?" Lupin asked. Maddy and Bella jumped and quickly and fervently denied it. "That's quite alright," he reassured them. "So..." he took out his own wand, and indicated that Harry should do the same. "The spell I am going to try and teach you is highly advanced magic, well beyond ordinary Wizarding Level. It is called the Patronus Charm."

"Oh, I've heard of that," Bella nodded. "They're really pretty! But, I thought Patronus' were used for communication."

"They are often used for that as well."

"How does it work?" Harry asked nervously.

"Well, when it works correctly, It conjures up a Patronus," said Lupin, "which is a kind of anti-dementor, a guardian that acts as a shield between you and the dementor."

"So like a giant, floating shield?" Maddy asked, picturing herself crouching behind a huge, semi-transparent, circle as a dementor repeatedly rammed into it.

"Not exactly, the Patronus is a kind of positive force, a projection of the very things that the dementor feeds upon -hope, happiness, the desire to survive- but it cannot feel despair, as real humans can, so the dementors can't hurt it and they each is unique to the wizard who casts it in shape."

"I've only ever seen animal shaped ones..." Bella noted.

"And they only ever are animals, but never magical ones."

"How do you conjure one?" Harry wondered.

"With an incantation, which will work only if you are concentrating, with all your might, on a single, very happy memory," Lupin answered.

Maddy began to cast her mind around, avoiding any memories of Maude since those had begun to make her cry as of recent. She was drawing a blank. Remembering things that were actually Patronus strength good.

"Right," Harry said after a minute.

"Got one!" Bella chimed.

A few minutes later Maddy said, "I'm not coming up with anything _really_ good."

Bella gaped at her and said, "Are you saying that our precious time spent together isn't good to you."

"No, I mean it's like worlds better than spending time with like Malfoy, but-"

"How dare you," she said darkly.

"Are you sure that you can't think of any good memories?" Lupin asked.

"Well, I'm not really connected well with my emotions and I don't have a great memory, so that would be a no," Maddy replied.

"Well, maybe you'll come up with something in a minute." He turned to Harry and Bella after Maddy nodded and said, "The incantation is this-" he cleared his throat. " _Expecto patronum_!" The two began to mutter the words under their breath. "Concentrating hard on your happy memory?"

"Oh, yeah," Harry said. "Expecto patrono -no, patronum- sorry, _expecto patronum, expecto patronum_." Something whooshed suddenly out of the end of his wand; it looked like a wisp of silvery gas.

"Did you see that?" said Harry excitedly. "Something happened!"

"Very good," said Lupin, smiling. "Now you, Bella."

" _Expecto patronum_ ," Bella said, and nothing happened. " _Expecto patronum! Expecto patronum!_ " A small little wisp, slightly smaller than Harry's, emerged from her wand.

"Excellent," Lupin smiled. "Right, then, Maddy?"

"Huh?" Maddy looked up, slightly alarmed, she had forgotten that she was supposed to come up with a happy memory. "Oh, yeah, right, uh..." She began to violently sift through memories and finally landed on the day that Bella woke up from being paralyzed from the drakon in second year. "I've got one. _Expecto patronum, expecto patronum, expecto patronum!_ " Nothing happened. Maddy glowered at her wand.

"That's fine, this _is_ a very advanced spell."

"Yeah, I know," Maddy sighed. "You guys can move on, I'll just practice in the corner or something." She began to move backwards and Lupin said that she should practice in a different room since the boggart dementor would affect her if she were to be in the same room as it and Maddy really didn't want to be in the same room as Harry and Bella while they performed a spell that she couldn't do at all, let alone fainting and crying in front of them while they probably protected themselves and in front of her professor again. Needless to say, Maddy was very happy for the offer and practically ran away from the room as fast as she would from any monster, feeling the burn of embarrassment that was still lingering from her multiple failed attempts.

After who knows how long -well, probably Harry, Bella and Lupin knew since Maddy knew for a fact that both Harry and Bella had watches- the door to the room Maddy was practicing in and Harry and Bella looked exhausted and weak, Lupin didn't look too well himself. Lupin asked about her progress and Maddy reported the poor results, then they each departed, Harry and Bella to the Gryffindor common room, Maddy to the Slytherin common room and Lupin to his quarters.

* * *

Lupin's anti-dementor classes happened once a week, and Maddy's spirit's were getting worse and worse as Bella and Harry continued to advance, if only mildly and she could only get out the smallest of smallest wisps of a transparent cloud. Lupin repeatedly told her that even that was good for a third year but Maddy didn't care as long as Bella and Harry were so much better than her, so good in fact that each of their Patronuses were beginning to be shaped like _something,_ whatever they were Harry's was big and thin and Bella's was just over her waist in height and big.

Harry and Bella were also ragged and overwhelmed, they never had time for anything because Wood was pushing the Gryffindor Quidditch team so hard and they had to practice everyday and there was also all their homework. It didn't really help with Bella that she had relapsed into silence even though she had managed to figure out how to _wordless magic_. Another thing that didn't help with Maddy's self esteem, her friends were all so talented and she was just barely average. As Ron would say, she was just rubbish with wand work.

On the eighth of February Maddy got a letter from her mom wishing her a happy fourteenth birthday, she was ecstatic since she never really knew _exactly_ how old she was, she only got a ballpark of it when she started at Hogwarts and realized that everyone in her year was eleven. Hermione and Bella even went really overboard, getting all excited and even ordering from some muggle place to get her some really good headphones, a record player and some Bratmobile and Sex Pistol records, how in the name of Hades they managed the records, Maddy had no idea but she told them that neither of them had to get her presents for the next ten years.

Maddy didn't tell Ron about her birthday because he was _still_ surly about the Firebolt and Maddy would always side with safety when it came to taking to the skies, nor did she tell Harry because they only spoke about the Patronus charm, and Elliot, very lovingly told Maddy that without forewarning of any present-giving occasions she would give nothing more than a half hearted happy birthday. Maddy expected nothing less from her.

Midway through February Harry got his Firebolt back and they were all back on speaking terms, though Ron and Hermione appeared to feel no emotion for each other other than complete hatred because Crookshanks apparently couldn't help itself from attacking Scabbers resulting in it's death, something that didn't make any sense to Maddy. Scabbers was old and _just_ an animal and a rat at that. And the same with Crookshanks, why did Hermione care so much about it to defend it enough to completely ruin a friendship? Maddy, of course, did not voice this, although she did voice her annoyance at being pounced on whenever she walked by Crookshanks outside.

Well, she didn't voice her opinion until Harry said that he thought that Crookshanks had indeed eaten Scabbers. This lead to the only people that would talk to her were Elliot and Bella. Elliot because she shared the sentiment and Bella because she was just that good at remaining impartial while staying friends with everyone, though she did say that Elliot and Maddy's view was messed up.

"This year is needlessly dramatic," Maddy sighed as Hermione walked into the Great Hall for breakfast and then out again when she saw that each side of the Gryffindor table held people she was mad at.

"Yeah, really," Elliot agreed.

"I bet Sirius Black will break into Hogwarts again soon," Bella sighed.

"Oh, so you can talk."

"Yes, I can talk and have been for a week."

"Oh. Considering our track record, Black will definitely break in." After a moment of Elliot staring at Harry with narrowed eyes she said, "Do you think I should sneak into the Gryffindor common room or get Seamus or Dean to take the Firebolt to me?"

" _What_ are you talking about?" Bella asked.

"I was promised a ride on the Firebolt and I will get it even if I have to disembowel the entirety of Gryffindor."

"That is actually terrifying," Maddy said. "You might actually be more demented than half of the residence of the Fields of Punishment."

"Aww, thank you, Maddy," Elliot said sincerely.

"Also, why Seamus and Dean in particular?" Bella asked.

"They're weak and easy to manipulate."

"And you know this because..."

"It's completely my business and not yours."

Maddy and Bella shared a slightly alarmed look.

"Hey, guys, why are people gathering around Harry?" Bella asked after another bout of silence.

"Firebolt," Elliot said as Percy Weasley loudly declared, "Now, now, Penny, no sabotage!"

"Now might be the perfect time to take that death machine, El," Maddy commented.

"No, it's far too conspicuous, though I could get a good feel of the size and then decide what the best plan would be... Yeah, I'll be back." She stood up and walked over to the crowd.

The next day Maddy and Elliot got word of Sirius Black breaking into the Gryffindor common room and almost killing Ron when Neville got a howler from his grandmother about him losing the passwords to the common room and letting the mass murderer get them.

Shortly after Neville sprinted out of the Great Hall, an owl landed in front of Maddy, carried by Melinoe -who Maddy had, honestly, forgotten about- from Hagrid.

_Dear Maddy and Elliot,_

_How about having tea with me this afternoon around six?_

* * *

Maddy and Elliot decided to go to Hagrid's and they set out ten minutes until six.

Just as they reached the cabin Hagrid emerged and said, "Hullo Maddy, Elliot. I jus' need ta pop out fer a minute. Harry and Ron're waitin' fer me since Harry can't go out alone."

"Is that why you called us down here?" Elliot asked.

"Kind of, hope ye don't mind."

"We don't mind at all," Maddy replied. "We'll just wait in your hut."

Upon entering Hagrid's hut the first thing they saw was the hippogriff, stretched out on Hagrid's while eating a rather large, dead ferret.

"Oh god," Elliot groaned.

"El, you stay between me and the thing," Maddy said, pulling Elliot in front of her. "If it comes in our direction put up a shield."

"Why me?" Elliot asked.

"You're magic's way more stable than mine and you know more spells than me."

"Would you say that I'm..." Elliot prompted.

"Alive...?"

"And..."

"You spend all your free time reading...?"

"And..."

"You're a terrible person?"

"And I'm also a ge..."

"...an jacket lover," Maddy finished.

"You won't say it, will you?"

"No."

"Okay," Elliot sighed and readied her wand incase Buckbeak decided to attack Maddy.

Hagrid returned soon with Harry and Ron in tow, Ron was proudly saying, "I s'pose you want to here all about Saturday night!"

"I've already heard all about it," Hagrid replied.

"Oh."

"You're really aloof for someone who was almost murdered," Maddy said, alerting Harry and Ron to her and Elliot's presence.

"What're you doing here!" Ron exclaimed furiously.

"Still mad at us, are you?" Elliot asked. "Also, we were invited here like you, I assume for something dealing with Hermione since Bella isn't here and is the only one still on speaking terms with her."

"Yer right," Hagrid confirmed.

"Yes! Maddy, you owe me ten galleons!"

"We didn't bet on anything?" Maddy replied, confused and staring at Elliot.

"Exactly!" Elliot exclaimed and Maddy just continued to stare at her like she had gone mad.

"What are they for?" Harry asked, ending a resounding silence as he gestured to a big, horrible, brown suit that Maddy hadn't noticed before.

"Buckbeak's case against the Committee fer the Disposal o' Dangerous Creatures," said Hagrid. "This Friday. Him an' me'll be goin' down ter London together. I've booked two beds on the Knight Bus..."

"When did that start happening?" Elliot asked.

"A while ago."

"Ah."

"What do you want to say to us about Hermione?" Ron asked in a moody way.

"She's in a righ' state, that's what. She's bin comin' down ter visit me a lot since Chris'mas. Bin feelin' lonely. Firs' yeh weren' talking to her because o' the Firebolt, now yer not talkin' to her because her cat-"

"-ate Scabbers!" Ron interjected angrily.

"Something I still don't understand is that you care so much about that thing," Maddy added. "It's just a rat, you can buy a newer better one and you're always griping and groaning about it for years and now suddenly you care so much about it since he's harder to take of and then dead, but whatever. Also, I would like to mention that we were with Hermione for the Firebolt and she chose to not talk to us because we _hate_ her cat. It's awful and has repeatedly attacked me."

"Ah, well people can be a bit stupid about their pets and, Ron, he was jus' actin' like any other cat does," Hagrid said wisely. "She's cried a fair few times, yeh know. Goin' through a rough time at the moment. Bitten off more'n she can chew, if yeh ask me, all the work she's tryin' ter do. Still found time ter help me with Buckbeak's case, mind... She's found some really good stuff fer me... reckon he'll stand a good chance now..."

"Hagrid, we should've helped as well, sorry-" Harry began awkwardly.

"I'm not blamin' yeh!" said Hagrid, waving Harry's apology aside. "God knows yeh've had enough ter be gettin' on with. I've seen yeh practicin' Quidditch ev'ry hour o' the day an' night, but I gotta tell yeh, I thought you two'd value yer friend more'n broomsticks or rats. Tha's all. Really upset, she was, when Black nearly stabbed yeh, Ron. She's got her heart in the right place, Hermione has, an' you four not talkin' to her-"

"If she'd just get rid of that cat, I'd speak to her again!" Ron said angrily. "But she's still sticking up for it! It's a maniac, and she won't hear a word against it!"

"I don't think she needs to get rid of it," Maddy said. "And that coming from me, the 'animal hater.' Yes, Ronald, I heard you, though I do agree because I do hate animals."

"Now, now, Maddy," Hagrid said, "I'm sure Hermione would be happy enough to speak with you again, if you just-"

"Would she though? She's completely avoided me ever since I said that her cat is a scoundrel that doesn't deserve her love and I would be perfectly fine and a tiny bit happier if it was fed arsenic."

"You should probably definitely apologize to her," Harry said.

"It's a cat."

"Maddy," Hagrid shook his head in disappointed way.

"Okay, fine," Maddy sighed. "I'll apologize to her, I guess that I could have just left off with the not deserving her love part."

"I think that that is a perfectly fine statement," Ron said.

"Of course you do, you're the person who was almost killed by a serial killer and instead of freaking out you go around parading the fact like you just won some great award and you have an almost obsessive connection with an _old, dead rat_."

After this there was a slight escalation in tension but Hagrid and Harry managed to calm everyone down and they actually ended up having a civil conversation. Ron was still a bit moody about the Scabbers thing but Maddy decided that she would apologize -Elliot said that she would absolutely not and Harry said nothing about the matter.

* * *

The next day when everyone was leaving for the Hogsmeade trip that Maddy decided to skip in order to catch up with some homework that she had _seriously_ neglected she found that Elliot was not going and neither was Bella.

"This is surprising," Maddy said when she found this out.

"I'm trying to lay low," Bella said. "You know, be the kind of mediator of the group, and since I'm the only person actually on speaking terms with Hermione at the moment I am not sneaking out and potentially throw the kinda delicate balance we've got going on."

"And I," Elliot said, "am bored of the place and not in need of any new books at the moment. Oh, and also homework. I need you to do my Divination homework, you're great at those fake prophecies."

"Only if you do my potions homework," Maddy replied.

"Of course," Elliot said and slid over her Divination homework and Maddy handed over her blank parchment for her Potions essay.

Bella began to work on her homework as well and that was how the day was spent, until around lunch when Hermione barged into the library and declared that Hagrid and Buckbeak lost their trial. Bella practically went into hysterics, running out of the library at top speed and only a few minutes later Maddy saw her running to Hagrid's hut out the window. Hermione, upon realizing that neither Maddy nor Elliot would feel much of anything about the verdict, left to find Ron and Harry about it.

"Oh shit, I was going to apologize to her," Maddy said a few moments after Hermione left. "Oh well, it can wait."

Later that day when Maddy went to apologize to Hermione she said she didn't need one and suddenly they were back on speaking terms, as was everyone else, which was a relief.

* * *

"S'all my fault," Hagrid said during the next Care of Magical Creatures class. "Got all tongue-tied. They was all sittin' there in black robes an' I kep' droppin' me notes and forgettin' all them dates yeh looked up fer me, Hermione. An' then Lucius Malfoy stood up an' said his bit, and the Committee jus' did exac'ly what he told 'em..."

"Did you try pointing that out like I said?" Bella asked. "Normally people get all weird and deny-ey when you do that."

"I tried, but Malfoy wouldn' let me get a word out."

"There's still the appeal!" said Ron fiercely. "Don't give up yet, we're working on it!"

After class they were walking back up to the castle with the rest of the class. Ahead they could see Malfoy, who was walking with Crabbe and Goyle, and kept looking back, laughing derisively. Ron and Bella were looking really aggressive.

"S'no good, Ron, Bella," said Hagrid sadly as they reached the castle steps. "That Committee's in Lucius Malfoy's pocket. I'm jus' gonna make sure the rest o' Beaky's time is the happiest he's ever had. I owe him that..." Hagrid turned around and hurried back toward his cabin, his face buried in his handkerchief.

"Look at him blubber!" Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle had been standing just inside the castle doors, listening. "Have you ever seen anything quite as pathetic?" said Malfoy. "And he's supposed to be our teacher!"

Harry, Bella, Ron and Maddy all made furious moves toward Malfoy, but Hermione got there first.

She had slapped Malfoy across the face with all the strength she could muster and the sound resonated across the grounds. Malfoy staggered. Harry, Ron, Crabbe, and Goyle stood flabbergasted as Hermione raised her hand again and Maddy and Bella shrieked in ecstatic alarm.

"Don't you dare call Hagrid pathetic, you foul, you evil-"

"Hermione!" said Ron weakly, and he tried to grab her hand as she swung it back.

"Get off, Ron!"

"Yes, get off, Ron!" Bella exclaimed.

Hermione pulled out her wand. Malfoy stepped backward. Crabbe and Goyle looked at him for instructions, thoroughly bewildered.

"C'mon," Malfoy muttered, and in a moment, all three of them had disappeared into the passageway to the dungeons.

" _Hermione!_ " Ron said again, sounding both stunned and impressed.

"That is the most amazing thing I have seen in my life!" Maddy exclaimed.

"Harry, you'd better beat him in the Quidditch final!" Hermione said shrilly. "You just better had, because I can't stand it if Slytherin wins!"

"We're due in Charms," said Ron, still goggling at Hermione. "We'd better go."

"Bye, guys," Maddy waved and headed for the library since she had a free period.

* * *

Just before the Easter holidays Hermione quit Divination by storming out and Maddy heard that it was incredible, however, unfortunately, after that it was just a swamp of horrible because the third years had never had so much homework and then there was Buckbeak's appeal that Maddy got guilted into doing and then she forced Elliot into helping. Harry and Bella weren't working on the appeal but this was because they had enough trouble working in their homework around Oliver Wood's ridiculous Quidditch schedule but somehow Hermione was still able to do all her homework _and_ work on the appeal. How? It was a mystery.

Maddy was receiving weekly IMs from Annabeth, updating her on her quest with Jason, Leo and Piper and by the time that Maddy had actually remembered to tell her where Percy most likely was, they had already figured that out and now they were close to Camp Jupiter.

"Okay, Annabeth," Maddy began, "what if I joined you guys in arriving at the camp? I'm on Easter break right now and everything is just _so_ _stressful_ here. I can bring my friend Bella too, she's Roman, she's actually in the first something or other. It's the best anyway and I bet she would really enjoy getting back there and it'll probably make the Romans feel better about you guys being there."

"Well, that makes sense," Annabeth said. "Yeah, the Argo II is just over Reno, Nevada. I'll move aside so you can get a better idea of what it looks like if that helps."

"Yeah, it will," Maddy nodded and the daughter of Athena moved aside and Maddy examined the area that she could see. "Thanks. I'll be there in a minute."

"Okay, bye, Maddy," Annabeth said and wiped her hand through the Iris Message.

Maddy quickly located Bella in the library and told her about the situation and Bella enthusiastically agreed. Maddy grabbed her arm, pulled her into an empty part of the library and shadow travelled away.


	7. Camp Jupiter

"That was quick," Annabeth said, looking very nervous and pacing around the room that was lined with scenes that were happening in Camp Half Blood in real time. "You must be Bella. I'm Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena."

"I am indeed Bellona Nevra, daughter of Bellona and before you ask, my dad can, under no circumstances, come up with names," Bella said.

"How far away are we?" Maddy asked.

"Fair-fairly far, we're still above Reno but we should get there within the hour," Annabeth replied.

"Above?" Bella asked. "Are we flying?"

"Yeah," Maddy replied. "The Argo II is a flying ship with a robotic dragon head."

"First of all, that dragon head thing is amazing. Secondly, why won't you go on a broom but you'll go on this flying contraption?"

"Well, the only time I was ever on a broom I also got struck my lightning on a clear day because my uncles hate me and did you forget that there's a son of Jupiter on board? Zeus isn't going to strike down his own kid! Albeit, his Roman, pseudo-son. If that makes sense."

"Oh my gods, right, where's Jason?" Bella asked.

"Out in the front," Annabeth replied. "You should probably join him because we decided that he should be easily visible so that we are not attacked and you will also be helpful for that. And you're already wearing your Camp Jupiter shirt, so that's good."

Maddy and Bella had figured out a way to wear their Camp shirts in Hogwarts, and it just involved telling people it was from a muggle television show called 'Battle Royal: Camp Edition' and for any of the muggle raised wizards who knew that there was no such thing the said that it was only available in America because it did terribly when sold and it was just an inside joke. Only later did they realized they could just say they were summer camps or an inside joke.

"Good idea. Another one, don't wear your camp shirts. A lot of the camp hates the very idea of Greeks so yeah."

"Thanks for the advice," Annabeth said. "Maddy, I'm sure you can borrow one of Piper's shirts, I'll go tell Coach Hedge and Leo."

"Wait, Piper's clothes?" Maddy asked, remembering the floral tank top she had been wearing the first day that they had met as well as some other fashion choices she had made. "I think a shirt of Jason's would be a better fit on me, don't you?"

"She has a few plaids."

"Oh thank the gods."

"Bella, I'll show you to Jason and introduce him to you, I guess since he doesn't remember much of anything from before going to Camp Half Blood," Annabeth said.

"I'll go explore the ship, find Piper, tell anyone who's wearing a Camp shirt to change and also that I am here since that might be surprising," Maddy said.

They departed ways and Maddy found that the Argo II was massive. She managed to find Coach Hedge when he barrelled towards her screaming about intruders and trying to hit her with his bat until she told him why she was there and at that point Piper and Leo had arrived there, then Maddy got one of Piper's plaid shirts.

Annabeth was really freaking out and as they drew closer all she could do was pace around and repeatedly check the ballistae. Jason and Piper were also pretty nervous, but Leo and Bella were equally energetic and conversing by sending excited shouts across the Argo II. Maddy wasn't really sure how to feel, nervous, yes, but it was kind of a numbed nervousness. She was also excited to see Percy again, she didn't see him much in the first place and it just felt kind of strange for him to not be at Camp Half Blood during the winter holidays.

Suddenly, the clouds broke around their hull, revealing the gold-and-green carpet of the Oakland Hills below them and Maddy began to feel very nauseous. It was so much easier to be calm about being in the air when clouds were covering her view of the ground. And that also happened to be when severe anxiety struck her hard in the gut as she could just barely see what she was sure was the top of Camp Jupiter.

Everyone began to scramble around to their pre-assigned stations, Leo rushed around like a madman, checking his gauges and wrestling levers. Most helmsmen would've been satisfied with a pilot's wheel or a tiller. Leo had also installed a keyboard, monitor, aviation controls from a Learjet, a dubstep soundboard, and motion-control sensors from a Nintendo Wii. He could turn the ship by pulling on the throttle, fire weapons by sampling an album, or raise sails by shaking his Wii controllers really fast -Bella had called it sick, Maddy called it sickeningly terrifying. Even by demigod standards, Leo was seriously ADHD.

Piper paced back and forth between the mainmast and the ballistae, practicing her lines. "Lower your weapons," she murmured. "We just want to talk." Her charmspeak was so powerful that Maddy began to calm a little down as she heard her words.

Jason and Bella were standing up at the front in plain sight, chatting while trying their best to emphasize their Camp Jupiter t-shirts since they probably wouldn't be individually recognized when the Argo II was at 'shoot a flaming boulder at the giant flying death trap' range.

Annabeth and Maddy were standing near the area where they would be disembarking the ship from.

"This last hour, stressful as it may have been," Maddy said as they waited, "has been _such_ a good break! Hades, we were overflowing with homework and protecting a hippogriff from being executed," at this point she took a deep breath and began to speak rapidly, "but we don't even know where the homework came from, we're supposed to be on break and exams are so far away and I'm positive I heard something about O.W.L.s and those aren't until fifth year, we're only in our third year and being completely honest I don't like that hippogriff at all and I don't care if it gets executed, I've just been guilt tripped and I hate emotions."

"Oh gods, how long have you been holding that in? And, how do you speak so quickly?" Annabeth said.

"A while, I honestly don't know why though, I think I might just be panicking a little bit about everything a lot. Also, no clue, it's kinda terrifying though."

"Yeah, you're probably just panicking. Being in the sky probably isn't helping either."

"No, it is not."

On the ground, a large crowd was gathering under the Argo II, Maddy hoped that they could land before the ground was completely covered with people. Annabeth and Maddy were leaning over the edge, searching for Percy in the crowd but before they could make much progress in finding him there was a loud _BOOM!_ From behind them, causing them both to jump, almost lurch over the edge and whirl around to face a very angry statue.

It had just appeared on bored and sulfurous yellow smoke rolled off its shoulders. Cinders popped around its curly hair. From the waist down, it was nothing but a square marble pedestal. From the waist up, it was a muscular human figure in a carved toga.

"Unacceptable!" It shrieked in a fussy teacher voice. "I will not have weapons inside the Pomerian Line! I certainly will not have _Greeks_!"

"What up, Terminus!" Bella screamed.

"Hello, Bellona," the statue sighed.

"Terminus," Jason said. "It's me. Jason Grace."

"Oh, I remember _you_ , Jason!" Terminus grumbled. "I thought you had better sense than to consort with the enemies of Rome!"

"What? And you didn't expect better of me?" Bella muttered.

"But they're not enemies-" Jason began.

"That's right," Piper jumped in. "We just want to talk. If we could-"

"Ha!" snapped the statue. "Don't try that charmspeak on me, young lady. And put down that dagger before I slap it out of your hands!"

Piper glanced at her bronze dagger, which she'd apparently forgotten she was holding. "Um…okay. But how would you slap it? You don't have any arms."

" _Impertinence!_ " There was a sharp _POP_ and a flash of yellow. Piper yelped and dropped the dagger, which was now smoking and sparking. "Lucky for you I've just been through a battle," Terminus announced. "If I were at full strength, I would've blasted this flying monstrosity out of the sky already!"

"Hold up." Leo stepped forward, wagging his Wii controller. "Did you just call my ship a monstrosity? I know you didn't do that."

"Let's all calm down." Annabeth raised her hands to show she had no weapons. "I take it you're Terminus, the god of boundaries. Jason told me you protect the city of New Rome, right? I'm Annabeth Chase, daughter of-"

"Oh, I know who _you_ are!" The statue glared at her with its blank white eyes. "A child of Athena, Minerva's Greek form. Scandalous! You Greeks have no sense of decency. We Romans know the proper place for that goddess."

Annabeth visibly clenched her jaw. "What exactly do you mean, _that_ goddess? And what's so scandalous about-"

"Right!" Jason interrupted. "Anyway, Terminus, we're here on a mission of peace. We'd love permission to land so we can-"

" _Impossible!_ " the god squeaked. "Lay down your weapons and surrender! Leave my city immediately!"

"Which is it?" Leo asked. "Surrender, or leave?"

"Both!" Terminus said. "Surrender, then leave. I am slapping your face for asking such a stupid question, you ridiculous boy! Do you feel that?"

"Wow." Leo studied Terminus with professional interest. "You're wound up pretty tight. You got any gears in there that need loosening? I could take a look." He exchanged the Wii controller for a screwdriver from his magic tool belt and tapped the statue's pedestal.

"Stop that!" Terminus insisted. Another small explosion made Leo drop his screwdriver. "Weapons are not allowed on Roman soil inside the _Pomerian Line_."

"The what?" Piper asked.

"City limits," Jason and Bella shortly clarified.

"And this entire ship is a weapon!" Terminus said. "You cannot land!"

"Oh how fun," Maddy said sarcastically, "being stuck hovering in the sky."

Down in the valley, the legion reinforcements were halfway to the city. The crowd in the forum was over a hundred strong now.

"Leo, stop the ship," Annabeth ordered.

"What?"

"You heard me. Keep us right where we are." Leo pulled out his controller and yanked it upward. All ninety oars froze in place. The ship stopped sinking.

"Terminus," Annabeth said, "there's no rule against hovering _over_ New Rome, is there?"

The statue frowned. "Well, no…"

"We can keep the ship aloft," Annabeth said. "We'll use a rope ladder to reach the forum. That way, the ship won't be on Roman soil. Not technically."

The statue seemed to ponder this. "I _do_ like technicalities," he admitted. "Still…"

"All our weapons will stay aboard the ship," Annabeth promised. "I assume the Romans -even those reinforcements marching toward us- will also have to honor your rules inside the _Pomerian Line_ if you tell them to?"

"Of course!" Terminus said. "Do I look like I tolerate rule breakers?"

"Uh, Annabeth…" Leo said. "You sure this is a good idea?"

"It'll be fine," she said. "No one will be armed. We can talk in peace. Terminus will make sure each side obeys the rules." She looked at the marble statue. "Do we have an agreement?"

Terminus sniffed. "I suppose. For now. You may climb down your ladder to New Rome, daughter of Athena. Please try not to destroy my town."

Everyone left their weapons on board, Maddy was kind of sad having to take off her Camp necklace and then placing her new wand with a bunch of sharp things. She also felt _really_ vulnerable without any weapons.

Maddy was the first to get off the Argo II after Jason and Bella and she was shocked to find that there were people of all ages gathered around, from babies to people on their deathbeds and Maddy had no clue of they were all demigods or what but it was weird.

"Bella, this is not a camp it is an entire fucking country," Maddy whispered.

"So, my camp's better?" Bella asked happily.

"Not saying that. I think that Camp Half Blood is _way_ better. This place is way to formal."

"You Greeks are weird."

" _You're_ weird."

"Great comeback, man."

"Yeah, I know and oh my gods is Percy a weird Roman thingy, Bell?" Maddy had found her cousin in the crowd, he wore one of the purple capes that Jason had to show that he was some important figure in Camp Jupiter's government. He was standing beside a guy with a buzz cut, a girl with frizzy black hair holding a cavalry helmet and a girl who was also wearing a purple cape with her dark hair tightly braided.

"What?" Bella followed Maddy's gaze. "Oh, yeah, evidently I missed something and he is a preator now. Oh, but Hazel, the frizzy haired girl is a daughter of Pluto, so your sister, and that girl with the braid is my sister Reyna."

"And you didn't tell me that I have a sister here because...?"

"It never really came up."

Reyna straightened and with apparent reluctance, she turned toward Jason. "Jason Grace, my former _colleague..._ " She spoke the word colleague like it was a dangerous thing. "I welcome you home. And these, your friends... _aaaand_ Bella-" Bella waved weakly at her sister while Annabeth surged forward and Percy rushed toward her at the same time. The crowd tensed. Some reached for swords that weren't there. Percy threw his arms around her. They kissed and Maddy gagged.

"Shield my precious virgin eyes, Bella. So gross," She groaned.

"What? Since when have you been so squeamish about this sort of thing?"

"Since forever, Bella, romance and just attraction in general is gross and makes no sense."

"This is something I probably should have figured out about you."

Annabeth rose to her feet and held out her hand to help Percy up to his feet. He took it and was pulled up.

Jason cleared his throat. "So, yeah...It's good to be back." He introduced Reyna to Piper, who looked a little miffed that she hadn't gotten to say the lines she'd been practicing, then to Leo, who grinned and flashed a peace sign.

"This is Maddy, who wasn't travelling with us until the last hour."

"I helped you out at the grand canyon over Christmas," Maddy muttered.

"And this is Annabeth," Jason said. "Uh, normally she doesn't judo-flip people."

Reyna's eyes sparkled. "You sure you're not a Roman, Annabeth? Or an Amazon?"

"I only attack my boyfriend like that," she promised. "Pleased to meet you." Reyna clasped her hand firmly.

"It seems we have a lot to discuss. Centurions!"

A few of the Roman campers hustled forward. Two kids appeared at Percy's side, the same ones Maddy had seen around him earlier earlier. The burly Asian guy with the buzz cut was about fifteen and with a kind of young face. The girl, Hazel, was actually about thirteen, with amber eyes, skin just a bit darker than Maddy's and long curly hair that was actually about the same length as Maddy's. Her cavalry helmet was tucked under her arm and the daughter of Hades couldn't help but search out the similarities in appearance between her and her apparent half sister.

Reyna was giving orders to her officers. "…tell the legion to stand down. Dakota, alert the spirits in the kitchen. Tell them to prepare a welcome feast. And, Octavian-"

"You're letting these intruders into the camp?" A tall, scrawny guy with stringy blond hair elbowed his way forward. Maddy immediately noticed three teddy bears hanging from his belt. "Reyna, the security risks-"

"We're not taking them to the camp, Octavian." Reyna flashed him a stern look. "We'll eat here, in the forum."

"Oh, much better," Octavian grumbled. "You want us to relax in the shadow of their warship."

"These are our guests." Reyna clipped off every word. "We will welcome them, and we will talk to them. As augur, you should burn an offering to thank the gods for bringing Jason back to us safely."

"Good idea," Percy put in. "Go burn your bears, Octavian."

Reyna looked like she was trying not to smile. "You have my orders. Go."

"He's the reason I'm taking Divination," Bella said. "Octavian, he's awful and a huge wimp. I really want to take a ferret or something and read that thing's guts to him while he reads his teddy bears."

"That is the best reasoning I have ever heard of," Maddy replied. "But I don't think they can teach you to disembowel an animal in a public school and Trelawney probably would just ruin it."

"Yeah."

"Excellent," Reyna said as campers dispersed. She turned to Jason, and Annabeth thought there was a hungry sort of gleam in her eyes. "Let's talk, and we can have a proper reunion."

Sets of couches and low tables were carted into the forum until it resembled a furniture showroom. Romans lounged in groups of ten or twenty, talking and laughing while wind spirits - _aurae_ according to Bella- swirled overhead, bringing an endless assortment of pizzas, sandwiches, chips, cold drinks, and fresh-baked cookies. Drifting through the crowd were purple ghosts - _Lares_ \- in togas and legionnaire armor. Around the edges of the feast, satyrs -well, technically fauns, Maddy guessed- trotted from table to table, panhandling for food and spare change. In the nearby fields, the war elephant frolicked with Mrs O'Leary, Percy's hellhound, and children played tag around the statues of Terminus that lined the city limits.

There were several people that Maddy and Bella sat with, the people who came in the Argo II, Reyna, Percy, Hazel, the other boy whose name was Frank, Octavian and a few other officials.

After Reyna proposed a toast to friendship and introductions were exchanged the travellers of the Argo II and the Romans exchanged stories, Maddy already knew about Annabeth's, but she previously knew nothing of Percy's in which he freed Thanatos, something that really messed with Maddy's brain because _she should have known if something was up with him or the Doors of Death_ _and she didn't_.

As Jason was telling the Romans how she, Jason, Leo and Piper freed Hera -or technically Juno- Octavian interjected by yelling "Impossible! That's our most sacred place. If the giants had imprisoned a goddess there-"

"They would've destroyed her," Piper said. "And blamed it on the Greeks, and started a war between the camps. Now, be quiet and let Jason finish."

"So," Jason continued, "that's how we found out about the earth goddess Gaea. She's still half asleep, but she's the one freeing the monsters from Tartarus and raising the giants. Porphyrion, the big leader dude we fought at the Wolf House: he said he was retreating to the ancient lands—Greece itself. He plans on awakening Gaea and destroying the gods by…what did he call it? Pulling up their roots."

Percy nodded thoughtfully. "Gaea's been busy over here, too. We had our own encounter with Queen Dirt Face." And he began to recount his own journey.

When Percy had finished, Jason whistled appreciatively. "No wonder they made you praetor."

Octavian snorted. "Which means we now have three praetors! The rules clearly state we can only have two!"

"On the bright side," Percy said, "both Jason and I outrank you, Octavian. So we can _both_ tell you to shut up."

Octavian turned as purple as his Roman T-shirt. Jason gave Percy a fist bump. Even Reyna managed a smile, though her eyes were stormy.

"We'll have to figure out the extra praetor problem later," she said. "Right now we have more serious issues to deal with."

"I'll step aside for Jason," Percy said easily. "It's no biggie."

"No _biggie_?" Octavian choked. "The praetorship of Rome is no _biggie_?"

Percy ignored him and turned to Jason. "You're Thalia Grace's brother, huh? Wow. You guys look nothing alike."

"Who?" Bella quietly asked Maddy.

"Daughter of Zeus, Hunter of Artemis, super badass, used to be a tree," Maddy replied quietly.

"Yeah, I noticed," Jason said as the girls conversed.

"A tree?" Bella hissed.

"Anyway, thanks for helping my camp while I was gone. You did an awesome job."

"Back at you," Percy said.

Annabeth interjected by saying, "We should talk about the Great Prophecy. It sounds like the Romans are aware of it too?"

Reyna nodded. "We call it the Prophecy of Seven. Octavian, you have it committed to memory?"

"Of course," he said. "But, Reyna-"

"Recite it, please. In English, _not_ Latin."

Octavian sighed. " _Seven half-bloods shall answer the call. To storm or fire the world must fall_ -"

" _An oath to keep with a final breath_ ," Annabeth continued. " _And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death_."

Everyone stared at her -except for Leo, who had constructed a pinwheel out of aluminum foil taco wrappers and was sticking it into passing wind spirits.

The big kid, Frank, sat forward, staring at her in fascination, as if she'd grown a third eye. "Is it true you're a child of Min- I mean, Athena?"

"Yes," she said, suddenly feeling defensive. "Why is that such a surprise?"

Octavian scoffed. "If you're truly a child of the wisdom goddess-"

"Enough," Reyna snapped. "Annabeth is what she says. She's here in peace. Besides…" She gave Annabeth a look of grudging respect. "Percy has spoken highly of you." Annabeth blushed deeply.

"Uh, thanks," she told Reyna. "At any rate, some of the prophecy is becoming clear. Foes bearing arms to the Doors of Death…that means Romans and Greeks. We have to combine forces to find those doors."

"My brother, Nico, went looking for the doors," she said.

"Wait," Annabeth said. "Nico di Angelo? He's your brother?"

"Yes."

"Okay. You were saying?"

"He disappeared." Hazel moistened her lips. "I'm afraid…I'm not sure, but I think something's happened to him."

"Why does Hazel know Nico?" Maddy asked Bella quietly.

"Oh, now I know why your brother looked familiar. He's a senator here," Bella replied.

"But he's Greek."

"Is he?"

" _Yes_." Maddy said and Bella shrugged.

"We'll look for him," Percy promised. "We have to find the Doors of Death anyway. Thanatos told us we'd find both answers in Rome -like, the original Rome. That's on the way to Greece, right?"

"Wait, is Nico missing?"

"Yes, pay attention," Bella muttered back to her. Maddy didn't know how she was supposed to converse and listen at the same time but she ignored that and went back to listening to the conversation.

Annabeth had said something that Maddy hadn't heard and Percy replied by saying, "Now that Death is free, monsters will disintegrate and return to Tartarus again like they used to. But as long as the Doors of Death are open, they'll just keep coming back."

Piper twisted the feather in her hair. "Like water leaking through a dam," she suggested.

"Yeah." Percy smiled. "We've got a dam hole."

"What?" Piper asked.

"Nothing," he said. "Inside joke. The point is we'll have to find the doors and close them before we can head to Greece. It's the only way we'll stand a chance of defeating the giants and making sure they stay defeated."

Reyna plucked an apple from a passing fruit tray. She turned it in her fingers, studying the dark red surface. "You propose an expedition to Greece in your warship. You do realize that the ancient lands -and the _Mare Nostrum_ \- are dangerous?"

"Mary who?" Leo asked.

" _Mare Nostrum_ ," Jason explained. "Our Sea. It's what the Ancient Romans called the Mediterranean."

Reyna nodded. "The territory that was once the Roman Empire is not only the birthplace of the gods. It's also the ancestral home of the monsters, Titans and giants…and worse things. As dangerous as travel is for demigods here in America, there it would be ten times worse."

"You said Alaska would be bad," Percy reminded her. "We survived that."

Reyna shook her head. Her fingernails cut little crescents into the apple as she turned it. "Percy, traveling in the Mediterranean is a different level of danger altogether. It's been off limits to Roman demigods for centuries. No hero in his right mind would go there."

"Then we're good!" Leo grinned over the top of his pinwheel. "Because we're all crazy, right? Besides, the Argo II is a top-of-the-line warship. She'll get us through."

"We'll have to hurry," Jason added. "I don't know exactly what the giants are planning, but Gaea is growing more conscious all the time. She's invading dreams, appearing in weird places, summoning more and more powerful monsters. We have to stop the giants before they can wake her up fully."

"Seven half-bloods must answer the call," she said. "It needs to be a mix from both our camps. Jason, Piper, Leo, and me. That's four."

"And me," Percy said. "Along with Hazel and Frank. That's seven."

"What?" Octavian shot to his feet. "We're just supposed to accept that? Without a vote in the senate? Without a proper debate? Without-"

"Oh, Pluto's pants, Maddy, we should go it's like past curfew at Hogwarts," Bella whispered.

"What? But this is-" Maddy stared.

"Yes, yes, but I'm exhausted and the break is ending in two days, meaning we _actually_ have to finish our homework tomorrow."

"Oh, fine," Maddy sighed. They both very quickly said goodbye to their friends while Percy's cyclops half brother, Tyson, spoke to him. Then, Maddy shadow travelled Bella to the portrait of the Fat Lady and then she travelled down into the dungeons and entered her own common room.

She ignored Elliot asking where she had been and collapsed into bed, suddenly being swept over with a feeling of sleepiness from it being late and her shadow travelling twice consecutively.

* * *

Shortly after classes started again a large barn owl dropped a letter in front of Harry.

"It's from Hagrid," he said, ripping the note open. "Buckbeak's appeal - it's set for the sixth."

"That's the day we finish our exams," said Hermione, looking everywhere for her Arithmancy book.

"And they're coming up here to do it," said Harry, still reading from the letter. "Someone from the Ministry of Magic and-and an executioner."

Hermione looked up, startled. "They're bringing the executioner to the appeal! But that sounds as though they've already decided!"

"Yeah, it does," said Harry slowly.

"They can't!" Ron howled. "I've spent _ages_ reading up on stuff for him; they can't just ignore it all!"

"They can and have," Maddy sighed. "I bet they've been bribed."

"Probably," Bella agreed. "Or blackmailed, that's a common practice and is how Lucius Malfoy stayed out of Azkaban after You-Know-Who was defeated." This caused the group to fall into a mournful and disappointed silence

* * *

When exam week began an unnatural hush fell over the castle. The third years emerged from Transfiguration at lunchtime on Monday, limp and ashen-faced, comparing results and bemoaning the difficulty of the tasks they had been set, which had included turning a teapot into a tortoise. Hermione irritated the rest by fussing about how her tortoise had looked more like a turtle, which was the least of everyone else's worries. Though, Maddy felt satisfied with her exam even though her tortoise's shell was still pinkish-purple and could be removed to reveal boiling water, which really didn't make sense, where were the organs? And how did the water boil?

"Mine still had a spout for a tail, what a nightmare..."

"Were the tortoises supposed to breathe steam?"

"It still had a willow-patterned shell, d'you think that'll count against me?"

After a hasty lunch, it was straight back upstairs for the Charms exam and Flitwick had them cast the Cheering Charm. Maddy overshot her charm from nerves about both the exams and still thinking about the fact that _Nico was missing_. She ended up making Elliot burst into hysterical laughter so bad that she started crying and fell to the floor, thankfully it only lasted for a few minutes but Elliot ended up punching Maddy in the nose.

Hagrid presided over the Care of Magical Creatures exam the following morning with a very preoccupied air indeed; his heart didn't seem to be in it at all. He had provided a large tub of fresh flobberworms for the class, and told them that to pass the test, their flobberworm had to still be alive at the end of one hour. As flobberworms flourished best if left to their own devices, it was the easiest exam any of them had ever taken, and also gave Harry, Ron, Hermione, Maddy and Bella plenty of opportunity to speak to Hagrid.

"Beaky's gettin' a bit depressed," Hagrid told them, bending low on the pretense of checking that Harry's flobberworm was still alive. "Bin cooped up too long. But still... we'll know day after tomorrow, one way or the other-"

They had Potions that afternoon, which was an unqualified disaster. No matter how hard Maddy tried she just couldn't get her Confusing Concoction to turn green, nor could she get it to stop sparkling, all while Snape was just standing, watching with an air of vindictive pleasure, and he scribbled something that looked suspiciously like a zero onto his notes before moving away.

Then came Astronomy at midnight, up on the tallest tower; History of Magic on Wednesday morning, in which Maddy basically just made everything up. Wednesday afternoon meant Herbology, in the greenhouses under a baking-hot sun; then back to the common room once more, with sunburnt necks, thinking longingly of this time next day, when it would all be over.

Their second to last exam, on Thursday morning, was Defense Against the Dark Arts. Professor Lupin had compiled the most unusual exam any of them had ever taken; a sort of obstacle course outside in the sun, where they had to wade across a deep paddling pool containing a grindylow, cross a series of potholes full of Red Caps, squish their way across a patch of marsh while ignoring misleading directions from a hinkypunk, then climb into an old trunk and battle with a new boggart.

When Maddy, walked into the trunk she walked out the minute she saw black smoke pooling out from a corner, creating hellfire and turning the trunk into the Underworld. She was gone.

"Did you even-?" Harry, who had stayed behind to watch his friends test, began.

"Nope, the inside looked like the Underworld, I refuse to deface my father, any of his subjects or my favourite place in the world," Maddy replied.

"But if it's your favourite place-"

"I'm betting it's something with my dad or someone dwelling within the Underworld, it could just be me in the Field of Punishment, which would be just awful, bad, very bad and there is no way for me to mak eternal punishment funny."

"Running was a good idea in that case."

"Yes. I feel that running is always a good choice when possible. And yet, I never do that in potentially fatal situations."

Just then, Hermione burst out of the trunk, screaming and crying.

"Hermione!" said Lupin, startled. "What's the matter?"

"P-P-Professor McGonagall!" Hermione gasped, pointing into the trunk. "Sh-she said I'd failed everything!"

It took a little while to calm Hermione down. When at last she had regained a grip on herself, she, Harry, Maddy, Bella, Elliot, and Ron went back to the castle. Ron was still slightly inclined to laugh at Hermione's boggart, but an argument was averted by the sight that met them on the top of the steps.

Cornelius Fudge, sweating slightly in his pinstriped cloak, was standing there staring out at the grounds. He started at the sight of Harry.

"Hello there, Harry!" he said. "Just had an exam, I expect? Nearly finished?"

"Yes," said Harry. The rest of them, not being on speaking terms with the Minister of Magic, hovered awkwardly in the background.

"Lovely day," said Fudge, casting an eye over the lake. "Pity... pity..." He sighed deeply and looked down at Harry. "I'm here on an unpleasant mission, Harry. The Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures required a witness to the execution of a mad hippogriff. As I needed to visit Hogwarts to check on the Black situation, I was asked to step in."

"Does that mean the appeal's already happened?" Ron interrupted, stepping forward.

"No, no, it's scheduled for this afternoon," said Fudge, looking curiously at Ron.

"Then you might not have to witness an execution at all!" said Ron stoutly. "The hippogriff might get off!"

Before Fudge could answer, two wizards came through the castle doors behind him. One was so ancient he appeared to be withering before their very eyes; the other was tall and strapping, with a thin black mustache. They were probably representatives of the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures, because the very old wizard squinted toward Hagrid's cabin and said in a feeble voice, "Dear, dear, I'm getting too old for this... Two o'clock, isn't it, Fudge?"

The black-mustached man was fingering something in his belt; Maddy looked and saw that he was running one broad thumb along the blade of a shining axe. Ron opened his mouth to say something, but Hermione nudged him hard in the ribs and jerked her head toward the entrance hall.

"Why'd you stop me?" said Ron angrily as they entered the Great Hall for lunch. "Did you see them? They've even got the axe ready! This isn't justice!"

"Ron, your dad works for the Ministry, you can't go saying things like that to his boss!" said Hermione, but she too looked very upset. "As long as Hagrid keeps his head this time, and argues his case properly, they can't possibly execute Buckbeak..."

Hermione and Maddy's last exam was Study of Ancient Runes, which was just boring but Maddy felt confident in her results. Afterwards they waited for their friends who were taking the Divination exam to join them in the library and eventually it was just Harry they were left waiting for.

As they were waiting Melinoe tapped on the window and Maddy grabbed the letter she was holding to find that it was from Hagrid. She sat down at the table her friends were occupying and ripped it open, the others leaning over her shoulder and reading along with her when they saw who it was from.

_Lost appeal. They're going to execute at sunset._

_Nothing you can do. Don't come down. I don't want_

_you to see it_

_Hagrid_


	8. The Shrieking Shack

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's only two chapters left after this one everyone! Also, I have not edited this one because I am lazy and writing GoF right now...

****Harry ran into the library and panted, "Professor Trelawney, just told me-" But he faltered upon seeing everyone else's faces.

"Buckbeak lost," said Ron weakly. "Hagrid's just sent this." He handed over the letter to Harry, whose face fell as h read.

"We've got to go," said Harry at once. "He can't just sit there on his own, waiting for the executioner!"

"Sunset, though," said Ron, who was staring out the window in a glazed sort of way. "We'd never be allowed... 'specially you, Harry..."

"This is bs," Elliot said. "I spent _all that time_ researching and it's just out the window into the deepest darkest pit ever with a giant arse fire at the pit."

"If we only had the Invisibility Cloak..." Harry sighed.

"Where is it?" Hermione asked.

"What did you do to that amazing piece of cloth?" Maddy asked.

"I, er, left it in the passage with the one-eyed witch. If Snape sees me anywhere near there again, I'm in serious trouble," he finished.

"You are an idiot. Why would you not just get it out sometime when you are absolutely positive that Snape wouldn't catch you. There are lots of times like that."

"No, ignore Maddy," Hermione stated.

"That's what everyone says," Maddy sighed.

"But, Harry," Hermione continued, "it's true that if _you_ get caught there you'll get in trouble. How do you open the witch's hump?"

"You-you tap it and say, ' _Dissendium_ ,'" said Harry. "But-" Hermione didn't wait for the rest of his sentence; she strode across the room, and disappeared from sight.

"I am not going unless you think I have the chance to make all of my not so hard work and severe suffering worth it," Elliot stated flatly.

"We're going to comfort Hagrid," Bella said. "I wish we could actually do something though."

"Not going then, too risky, the only time I've actually participated in your shenanigans I broke and twisted my arm."

"But that was with a drakon," Maddy said, "we're just going to go to Hagrid's and comfort him while he and probably Bella and Hermione cry to dehydration."

"Why just us?" Bella asked. "Why not Harry and Ron? I know you and Elliot are severely emotionally stunted-"

"That's Elliot who's the sociopath, I just despise animals and feel no remorse for them."

"Not a sociopath!" Elliot exclaimed exasperatedly. "How many times-"

"Fine, but that's not the point."

"You and Hermione _are_ really emotional," Ron admitted.

"I'll join you guys after dinner," Hermione interrupted before Bella could argue.

* * *

Once dinner was over Maddy and Elliot -who had been dragged along- met up with Harry, Hermione, Ron and Bella in a closeby, rarely-used corridor.

"Alright," Maddy said, looking out the door, "we're going to have to go across the centre of the grounds and there aren't any shadows there so I have to get under the invisibility cloak too."

"But you can become invisible..." Ron said.

"I don't become invisible, Ronald, I pack shadows tightly around me and blend into other, pre-existing shadows, I cannot become invisible."

"I don't know if all of us can fit under the cloak," Harry said. "We have to crouch to fit the four of us." He gestured to the other Gryffindors.

"It's literally impossible," Elliot decided. "I guess I should go, make your life easier and just go to sleep."

"We shall crawl!" Bella exclaimed. "Elliot, you stay, Harry, hand me the cloak, huddle together. If our feet are visible then we crouch and after that we sit on thin air and shuffle, like so," she crouched down into something similar to the fetal position and began to shuffle her feet across the ground. "Got it?"

The five of them crowded close together and Harry draped the invisibility cloak over them, then they each crouched down and slowly walked out of the school and across the grounds to Hagrid's hut. They reached the door and knocked. He was a minute in answering, and when he did, he looked all around for his visitor, pale-faced and trembling.

"It's us," Harry hissed. "We're wearing the Invisibility Cloak. Let us in and we can take it off."

"Yeh shouldn've come!" Hagrid whispered, but he stood back, and they stepped inside. Hagrid shut the door quickly and Harry pulled off the cloak.

Hagrid was not crying, nor did he throw himself upon their necks. He looked like a man who did not know where he was or what to do. This helplessness was worse to watch than tears.

"Wan' some tea?" he said. His great hands were shaking as he reached for the kettle.

"Where's Buckbeak, Hagrid?" said Hermione hesitantly.

"I-I took him outside," said Hagrid, spilling milk all over the table as he filled up the jug. "He's tethered in me pumpkin patch. Thought he oughta see the trees an'-an' smell fresh air before-" Hagrid's hand trembled so violently that the milk jug slipped from his grasp and shattered all over the floor.

"I'll do it, Hagrid," said Hermione quickly, hurrying over and starting to clean up the mess.

"There's another one in the cupboard," Hagrid said, sitting down and wiping his forehead on his sleeve. Harry glanced at Ron, who looked back hopelessly.

"Isn't there anything anyone can do, Hagrid?" Harry asked fiercely, sitting down next to him. "Dumbledore-"

"He's tried," said Hagrid. "He's got no power ter overrule the Committee. He told 'em Buckbeak's all right, but they're scared... Yeh know what Lucius Malfoy's like... threatened 'em, I expect... an' the executioner, Macnair, he's an old pal o' Malfoy's... but it'll be quick an' clean... an' I'll be beside him..." Hagrid swallowed. His eyes were darting all over the cabin as though looking for some shred of hope or comfort.

"Dumbledore's gonna come down while it-while it happens. Wrote me this mornin'. Said he wants ter-ter be with me. Great man, Dumbledore..."

Hermione, who had been rummaging in Hagrid's cupboard for another milk jug, let out a small, quickly stifled sob. She straightened up with the new jug in her hands, fighting back tears.

"We'll stay with you too, Hagrid," she began, but Hagrid shook his shaggy head.

"Yeh're ter go back up ter the castle. I told yeh, I don' wan' yeh watchin'. An' yeh shouldn' be down here anyway... If Fudge an' Dumbledore catch yeh out without permission, Harry, yeh'll be in big trouble."

"Like we'll leave you," Bella said defiantly. "We can all see it, _especially_ if we're doing it to be there for a friend, which you are."

"Thanks, bu' yeh really shouldn'," Hagrid sniffed.

Silent tears were now streaming down Hermione's face, but she hid them from Hagrid, bustling around making tea. Then, as she picked up the milk bottle to pour some into the jug, she let out a shriek.

"Ron! I-I don't believe it! It's _Scabbers_!" Ron gaped at her.

"What are you talking about?"

Hermione carried the milk jug over to the table and turned it upside down. With a frantic squeak, and much scrambling to get back inside, Scabbers the rat came sliding out onto the table.

"Scabbers!" said Ron blankly. "Scabbers, what are you doing here?"

"It's a bloody witch," Maddy said. "Burn it at the steak it's been brought back to life!"

"Maddy!" Hermione hissed.

"Waterboard the monstrosity," Maddy hissed.

"Drown it," Elliot added.

Ron grabbed the struggling rat and held it up to the light. Scabbers looked dreadful. It was thinner than ever, large tufts of hair had fallen out leaving wide bald patches, and it writhed in Ron's hands as though desperate to free itself.

"It's okay, Scabbers!" said Ron. "No cats! There's nothing here to hurt you!"

"It's probably just me, being completely honest here," Maddy said. "It's about time that rat came to it's senses and did the thing that all other animals do."

"Maddy, he's facing you," Harry pointed out. "It's not you."

"There is something wrong with that animal."

Hagrid suddenly stood up, his eyes fixed on the window. His

normally ruddy face had gone the color of parchment.

"They're comin'... ."

"The British?" Maddy asked, whipping around to look out the window. A group of men was walking down the distant castle steps. In front was Professor Dumbledore, his silver beard gleaming in the dying sun. Next to him trotted Cornelius Fudge. Behind them came the feeble old Committee member and the executioner, Macnair.

"Now is not the time for American Revolution jokes," Hermione hissed.

"It is always the time for Revolutionary War joke."

"Yeh gotta go," said Hagrid. Every inch of him was trembling. "They mustn' find yeh here... Go now..."

Ron stuffed Scabbers into his pocket and Hermione picked up the cloak.

"I'll let yeh out the back way," said Hagrid.

They followed him to the door into his back garden. Buckbeak, tethered behind Hagrid's pumpkin patch, seemed to know something was happening. It turned its sharp head from side to side and pawed the ground nervously.

"It's okay, Beaky," said Hagrid softly. "It's okay..." He turned to Harry, Ron, Hermione, Maddy and Bella. "Go on," he said. "Get goin'."

But none of them moved, except Maddy who moved only a single step before stopping when she noticed that the others weren't moving.

"Hagrid, we can't-"

"We'll tell them what really happened-"

"They can't kill him-"

"There's so much evidence for him-"

"Go!" said Hagrid fiercely. "It's bad enough without you lot in trouble an' all!"

They had no choice. As Hermione threw the cloak over Harry, Bella, Elliot and Ron -it had gotten dark enough for Maddy to hide herself on her own- they heard voices at the front of the cabin. Hagrid looked at the place where they had just vanished from sight.

"Go quick," he said hoarsely. "Don' listen..." And he strode back into his cabin as someone knocked at the front door. Maddy couldn't see the, but she knew that her friends were moving slowly. As they reached the other side, the front door closed with a sharp snap.

"Please, let's hurry," Hermione whispered. "I can't stand it, I can't bear it..."

"Think about something else," Bella replied. "And keep moving. _Finding Nemo_ , Hermione. Just keep swimming. Escap-e. Insert other funny things."

"What are you talking about?" Ron asked.

"A muggle thing."

"Well stop it," Elliot interjected, "it's freaking me out."

"Why?" Maddy asked.

"No clue, but that is _not_ how you say escape."

They started up the sloping lawn toward the castle but Ron had suddenly stopped dead in his tracks.

"Oh, please, Ron," Hermione began.

"It's Scabbers - he won't - stay put - Scabbers, it's me, you idiot, it's Ron," Ron hissed.

They heard a door open behind them and men's voices.

"Oh, Ron, please let's move, they're going to do it!" Hermione breathed.

"Okay - Scabbers, stay put-"

"Just drop the thing," Elliot hissed.

They walked forward; Ron stopped again.

"I can't hold him - Scabbers, shut up, everyone'll hear us-"

The rat was squealing wildly, but not loudly enough to cover up the sounds drifting from Hagrid's garden. There was a jumble of indistinct male voices, a silence, and then, without warning, the unmistakable swish and thud of an axe.

"They did it!" Hermione whispered loudly, her voice wavering. "I d-don't believe it, they did it!"

"Just," Bella swallowed weakly, "ignore it. Think of other things. Focus on Scabbers or your possible exam results."

"Hagrid," Harry muttered, and he made to turn back, but Ron, Bella and Hermione seized his arms.

"What in the name of the gods are you doing?" Bella hissed.

"We can't," Ron said. "He'll be in worse trouble if they know we've been to see him..."

Hermione's breathing was shallow and uneven. "How - could - they?" she choked. "How could they?"

"Come on," said Ron, whose teeth seemed to be chattering.

They set off back toward the castle, walking slowly so Harry, Bella, Hermione and Ron could keep themselves hidden under the cloak.

"Scabbers, keep still," Ron hissed, clamping his hand over his chest upon reaching the front doors. The rat was wriggling madly. Ron came to a sudden halt, trying to force Scabbers deeper into his pocket. "What's the matter with you, you stupid rat? Stay still - OUCH! He bit me!"

"This is why I said drop it." Elliot stated astutely.

"Ron, be quiet!" Hermione whispered urgently. "Fudge'll be out here in a minute-"

"He won't - stay - put-"

"What's the matter with him?" Bella asked

"Crookshanks!" Hermione moaned at a dark figure slinking along the ground towards the group. "No, go away, Crookshanks! Go away!"

But the cat was getting nearer.

"Scabbers - NO!" Ron shouted as the rat slipped between Ron's clutching fingers, hitting the ground, and scampering away. In one bound, Crookshanks sprang after him, and before Harry, Bella or Hermione could stop him, Ron had thrown the Invisibility Cloak off himself and pelted away into the darkness.

"Ron!" Hermione moaned and burst off after him, followed by Harry, Bella and Maddy, who were al sprinting after him.

"Get away from him - get away - Scabbers, come here-!" Ron shouted. There was a loud thud. "Gotcha! Get off, you stinking cat-!"

The other four of them skidded to a halt, narrowly avoiding falling over the red headed boy, who was sprawled on the ground, Scabbers was back in his pocket; he had both hands held tight over the quivering lump.

"Ron - come on - back under the cloak-" Hermione panted. "Dumbledore - the Minister - they'll be coming back out in a minute-"

But before they could cover themselves again, before they could even catch their breath, they heard the soft pounding of gigantic paws... Something was bounding toward them, quiet as a shadow -an enormous, pale-eyes, jet-black dog. It was the size of small hellhound and just as violent and threatening looking with huge, sharp teeth and ferocious growl.

Maddy reached for her spear just as the hellhound knocked into Harry's chest with its massive paws.

Ron was back on his feet. As the dog sprang back toward them he pushed Harry aside; the dog's jaws fastened instead around Ron's outstretched arm. Harry lunged forward, he seized a handful of the brute's hair, but it was dragging Ron away as easily as though he were a rag doll.

Then, out of nowhere, Maddy was knocked in the legs by something violent and forceful, flipping her off the ground and causing her to land on her back with a loud and painful _thud_ and her spear to get thrown out of her hands just as Hermione was hit in the shoulder about ten feet away.

Maddy didn't know how she hadn't know this before, but she saw the thick trunk of a tree and then the twisting branches and realized that it was the Whomping Willow. As a branch headed for Harry's head Maddy thickened the shadows between it and Harry and slowed its collision. Harry was still knocked to the ground and given a nasty cut but the blow would have been fatal had she not slowed down the branch.

" _Lumos!_ " Hermione muttered, causing her wand to light up, Bella did the same thing and once Harry found his wand he also lit up his wand.

"That's it, I am gone," Elliot said flatly, turning to walk away before being grabbed by Bella.

In the illumination Maddy could see that the hellhound was dragging Ron _into_ the tree, through a small opening. Ron was screaming and trying his best to grab onto something. He managed to grab a large root, but all that did was cause a loud, sickening _snap_ as the hellhound continued to pull him. He cried out louder at the undoubtedly broken arm.

"Ron!" Harry shouted, trying to follow, but a heavy branch whipped lethally through the air and he was forced backward again.

Bella, without saying anything, ran forward, swerving to avoid branches and just before she got to the entrance she was brutally knocked sideways why a branch slamming into her side.

"We've got to go for help-" Hermione gasped; she was bleeding too; the Willow had cut her across the shoulder.

"No! That thing's big enough to eat him; we haven't got time-" Harry exclaimed.

"Harry - we're never going to get through without help-"

Another branch whipped down at them, twigs clenched like knuckles.

"If that dog can get in, we can," Harry panted, darting here and there, trying to find a way through the vicious, swishing branches.

"Bella almost made it without help," Maddy panted. "It's exhausting but I can slow down the branches by thickening shadows, I did that to the branch that hit Harry in the head. Bella can definitely get through with my help." Bella nodded, looked at Maddy for confirmation and began to dash through the branches again, in the thicker and busier areas Maddy made the shadows as thick as she could, slowing them and it was working, there was an almost clear path for Bella but just as she was about to crawl into the hole Maddy _had_ to let go, she was too exhausted and Bella was almost grabbed and thrown backwards.

"I can't," Maddy panted. "It's too hard. I'm sorry."

"We'll figure it out," Harry said determinately. He was about to run through the branches again when they noticed Crookshanks effortlessly making it's way to the hole in the trunk, lifting up a paw as if pressing something and this made the branches turn stiff and just stop moving. It was as if it had never moved.

"Crookshanks!" Hermione whispered uncertainly. She now grasped Harry's arm painfully hard. "How did he know-?"

"He's friends with that dog," said Harry grimly. "I've seen them together. Come on, and keep your wand out."

Maddy picked up her spear from the ground and put it back on her necklace, then she pulled out her wand and filed into the tree behind the others, narrowly avoiding the branches swinging back to life.

"Where's Ron?" Hermione whispered in a terrified voice.

"This way," said Harry, setting off, bent-backed, after Crookshanks.

"Where does this tunnel come out?" Hermione asked breathlessly.

"I don't know... It's marked on the Marauder's Map but Fred and George said no one's ever gotten into it... It goes off the edge of the map, but it looked like it was heading for Hogsmeade..."

They moved as fast as they could, bent almost double; ahead of them, Crookshanks' tail bobbed in and out of view. On and on went the passage; it felt at least as long as the one to Honeydukes.

Then the tunnel began to rise; moments later it twisted, and Crookshanks had gone. Instead, Maddy could see a patch of dim light through a small opening.

They paused, all gasping for breath, and edging forward. Then they raised their wands to see what lay beyond.

It was a room, a very disordered, dusty room. Paper was peeling from the walls; there were stains all over the floor; every piece of furniture was broken as though somebody had smashed it. The windows were all boarded up. The room was deserted, but a door to their right stood open, leading to a shadowy hallway. Hermione suddenly grabbed Harry's arm again. Her wide eyes were traveling around the boarded windows.

"Harry," she whispered, "I think we're in the Shrieking Shack."

"Definitely," Elliot said, peering out the window.

Maddy looked around. Her eyes fell on a wooden chair near them. Large chunks had been torn out of it; one of the legs had been ripped off entirely.

"Ghosts didn't do that," Harry said slowly.

"Well, you guys do know that there aren't actually ghosts in this place, right?" Maddy asked. "I would be able to tell if there was one. But I can definitely tell traces of a monster."

At that moment, there was a creak overhead, causing all four of them to jump. Something had moved upstairs. All of them looked up at the ceiling.

They moved as quietly as they could up the staircase, Maddy's hand was gripped tight around her spear pendant, her hold so strong her knuckles had turned a startling shade of white.

Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust except the floor, where a wide shiny stripe had been made by something being dragged upstairs.

They reached the dark landing.

" _Nox_ ," they whispered together, and the lights at the end of their wands went out. Only one door was open. As they crept toward it, they heard movement from behind it; a low moan, and then a deep, loud purring. They exchanged a last look, a last nod. Wand held tightly before him, Harry kicked the door wide open.

On a magnificent four-poster bed with dusty hangings lay Crookshanks, purring loudly at the sight of them. On the floor beside him, clutching his leg, which stuck out at a strange angle, was Ron.

Harry, Bella and Hermione dashed across to him.

"Ron - are you okay?"

"Where's the dog?"

"Not a dog," Ron moaned. His teeth were gritted with pain. "Harry, it's a trap-" Maddy followed Ron's gaze and saw a man with long, matted black hair, pale skin stretched across a gaunt face, dark, empty eye sockets. She recognized him from all the newspapers Sirius Black.

"What-"

" _He's the dog... he's an Animagus..._ "

Harry wheeled around.

" _Expelliarmus!_ " Black croaked, pointing Ron's wand at them. Their wands shot out of their hands, soaring high in the air, and Black caught them all deftly. Then he took a step closer. His eyes were fixed on Harry.

"I thought you'd come and help your friend," he said hoarsely. His voice sounded as though he had long since lost the habit of using it. "Your father would have done the same for me. Brave of you, not to run for a teacher. I'm grateful... it will make everything much easier..."

Harry suddenly started forward, filled with rage and hate, but there was Bella, Hermione and Ron all grabbed him so tightly that he couldn't move forward.

"No, Harry!" Hermione gasped in a petrified whisper; Ron, however, spoke to Black.

"If you want to kill Harry, you'll have to kill us too!" he said fiercely, though the effort of standing upright was draining him of still more color, and he swayed slightly as he spoke. Something flickered in Black's shadowed eyes.

"Lie down," he said quietly to Ron. "You will damage that leg even more."

"Did you hear me?" Ron said weakly, though he was clinging painfully to Harry to stay upright. "You'll have to kill all five of us!"

"There'll be only one murder here tonight," said Black, and his grin widened.

"Why's that?" Harry spat, trying to wrench himself free of Ron, Bella and Hermione. "Didn't care last time, did you? Didn't mind slaughtering all those muggles to get at Pettigrew... What's the matter, gone soft in Azkaban?"

"Harry!" Hermione whimpered. "Be quiet!"

"You're being a dumbass," Maddy shot at him from across the room and Elliot silently agreed.

"HE KILLED MY MUM AND DAD!" Harry roared, and with a huge effort he broke free of his restraints and lunged forward. Black didn't raise his wand in time and Harry moved his wand away and hit Black in the head, sending him backwards. Hermione was screaming, Ron was yelling, Bella was gaping in awe and Maddy just stared.

The two continued to scrambled around, Crookshanks somehow joined them in and it all called down when Harry was over Black with his wand pointing at Black's chest.

"Going to kill me, Harry?" His breathing was ragged.

"You killed my parents," said Harry, his voice shaking slightly, but his wand hand quite steady. Black stared up at him out of his sunken eyes. Maddy recognized that type of eye, people who'd been through unimaginable loss, effectively had the soul sucked out of them or were related to Hades all had the exact same sunken eyes. Maddy herself was developing it and Nico's eyes were even more sunken than Black's.

"I don't deny it," he said very quietly. "But if you knew the whole story."

"The whole story?" Harry repeated furiously. "You sold them to Voldemort. That's all I need to know."

"You've got to listen to me," Black said, and there was a note of urgency in his voice now. "You'll regret it if you don't... You don't understand..."

"I understand a lot better than you think," said Harry, and his voice shook more than ever. "You never heard her, did you? My mum... trying to stop Voldemort killing me... and you did that... you did it..." Before either of them could say another word, something ginger streaked past Harry; Crookshanks leapt onto Black's chest and settled himself there, right over Black's heart. Black blinked and looked down at the cat.

"Get off," he murmured, trying to push Crookshanks off him. But Crookshanks sank his claws into Black's robes and wouldn't shift. He turned his ugly, squashed face to Harry and looked up at him with those great yellow eyes. Hermione gave a dry sob. Harry stared down at Black and Crookshanks. Maddy could tell what he was thinking, Crookshanks was just a cat. What did it matter if he died with Black. Maddy even agreed but she wasn't feeling anything malicious from him, other than his near lack of a soul. Attacking first and asking questions later was rarely smart, even if she did want him to be punished for the possible helping of someone who was cheating death, something that greatly infuriated Maddy, she needed to make sure he really was helping Voldemort.

"Harry," Maddy said, her voice completely calm. "Let him tell his story."

"DO YOU KNOW WHAT IM GOING THROUGH!" He kept his wand on Black but hurled around to face Maddy. He was so angry, if Maddy had been anyone else she was sure she would've been terrified enough to run. "IMAGINE YOUR PARENTS BEING KILLED AND FACING THE MAN WHO DID IT! WOULDN'T YOU WANT REVENGE! I _KNOW_ YOU WOULD DO EXACTLY WHAT I WANT TO DO!" Maddy winced, immediately remembering the summer. Her killing of Lara had been haunting her all year, though she still wasn't sure if it was killing Lara or her meek attempt at protecting Maude that had been bothering her. And Harry was right. He wanted to kill Black and she had killed Lara.

Then, with much more venom than Harry, Maddy spat, "You don't know what I would do in your situation, I've been in your situation and I wasn't given the chance to think about it. If you make assumptions like that about me ever again or waste this opportunity to really think through what you want to do now we won't be friends anymore." Everyone seemed positively frightened from the undoubtedly terrifying vibes Maddy was sending out. Harry sighed and let Black talk, though he kept his wand on him, but before he could say anything there was soft creaking from somewhere in the Shack.

"UP HERE!" Hermione yelled, startling everyone. "WE'RE UP HERE! SIRIUS BLACK! COME QUICK!"

The door of the room burst open in a shower of red sparks and Professor Lupin came hurtling into the room, his face ghostly pale, his wand raised and ready. His eyes flickered over Ron, lying on the floor, to Hermione, cowering next to the door, to Bella who seemed like she could attack anyone at any moment with her bare hands, to Elliot who was simply watching the events unfold in front of her like a movie, to Maddy who still had her Induced Fear cranked up on high and was muttering under her breath, to Harry, standing there with his wand covering Black, and then to Black himself, crumpled and bleeding at Harry's feet.

" _Expelliarmus!_ " Lupin shouted. Harry's wand flew once more out of his hand; so did the three Hermione was holding. Lupin caught them all deftly, then moved into the room, staring at Black, who still had Crookshanks lying protectively across his chest.

"Where is he, Sirius?" Lupin asked, his voice calm and stern. The two men glanced at each other, seeming to have a conversation without talking. "But then..." Lupin muttered, staring at Black so intently it seemed he was trying to read his mind, "...why hasn't he shown himself before now? Unless-" Lupin's eyes suddenly widened, as though he was seeing something beyond Black, something none of the rest could see, "-unless he was the one... unless you switched... without telling me?" Very slowly, his sunken gaze never leaving Lupin's face, Black nodded.

"Professor," Harry interrupted loudly, "what's going on-?" Lupin was lowering his wand, gaze fixed on Black. The Professor walked to Black's side, seized his hand, pulled him to his feet so that Crookshanks fell to the floor, and embraced Black like a brother. Okay, Maddy'd seen some _pretty_ weird things but seriously, what the Hades!

"I DON'T BELIEVE IT!" Hermione shrieked. Lupin let go of Black and turned to her. She had raised herself off the floor and was pointing at Lupin, wild-eyed. "You-you-"

"Hermione-" Lupin tried. Maddy was back at fiddling with her Spear pendant.

"-you and him!"

"Hermione, calm down-"

"I didn't tell anyone!" Hermione shrieked. "I've been covering up for you-"

"Hermione, listen to me, please'" Lupin shouted. "I can explain-"

"I trusted you," Harry shouted at Lupin, his voice wavering, out of control, "and all the time you've been his friend!"

"You're wrong," said Lupin. "I haven't been Sirius's friend, but I am now-let me explain..."

"NO!" Hermione screamed. "Harry, don't trust him, he's been helping Black get into the castle, he wants you dead too-he's a werewolf!"

There was a split second were everything was completely quiet and all eyes were on Lupin, but that was quickly interrupted by Maddy pulling on her pendant an her spear coming out, she didn't care if it was suspicious, lycanthropes were dangerous.

"Get behind me!" She ran in front of Hermione, Bella and Ron, pulling Elliot with her and then she grabbed Harry and threw him behind her, then she stood guard in front of them. She was probably still worked up from remembering her best friend's death but she began to shout at Lupin, completely ignoring her friends yells of protest and alarm. "I COULD TELL THERE WAS SOMETHING OFF ABOUT YOU THE MOMENT I SAW YOU BUT I STUPIDLY CONVINCED MYSELF IT WAS LEFT OVER NERVES OR I WAS OVERREACTING OR SOME OTHER NONSENSE BUT I GUESS I WAS RIGHT AGAIN! WHY CANT WE JUST GET A BREAK, WHY THE HADES IS THAT SO HARD! EVERY YEAR THERE'S EITHER A SECRETLY EVIL OR SECRETLY INCOMPETENT DEFENSE TEACHER! I WONT LET MY FRIENDS GET HURT! I screwed up this summer but I won't now!" Maddy could tell a lot of what she just said didn't make sense to the others but she really didn't care in the least. She also realized she said 'Hades' instead of 'hell' but it was too late to change that, she just hoped that Lupin didn't notice or would forget about it. Her spear was aimed at Lupin. She was shaking, but she still managed to keep it trained on him.

"Maddy," Lupin spoke in a calm voice, though there was a shake in it. "Let me explain." Maddy remain quiet, her eye was narrowed at her professor and she was exuding so much death and fear no one dared speak, except Lupin. "While I will not deny that I am a werewolf I have to say that Hermione's other two accusations are incorrect. I have not been helping Sirius get into the castle and I certainly don't want Harry dead..."

Lupin moved forward to help but Maddy spun her weapon around so it acted as a barricade, he stopped before he rammed into the long shaft of the spear and Ron hissed, "Keep away from me, werewolf!"

Lupin paused for a moment then faced Hermione. "How long have you known?"

"Ages," Hermione whispered. "Since I did Professor Snape's essay..."

"He'll be delighted," said Lupin coolly. "He assigned that essay hoping someone would realize what my symptoms meant... Did you check the lunar chart and realize that I was always ill at the full moon? Or did you realize that the boggart changed into the moon when it saw me?"

"Both," Hermione said quietly.

Lupin forced a laugh. "You're the cleverest witch of your age I've ever met, Hermione."

"I'm not," Hermione whispered. "If I'd been a bit cleverer, I'd have told everyone what you are!"

"But they already know," said Lupin. "At least, the staff do."

"Dumbledore hired you when he knew you were a werewolf?" Ron gasped. "Is he mad?"

"He must be," Maddy muttered. "Either that or he's siding with monsters." Lupin winced as she said 'monsters'.

"Some of the staff thought so too," said Lupin. "He had to work very hard to convince certain teachers that I'm trustworthy-"

"AND HE WAS WRONG!" Harry yelled. "YOU'VE BEEN HELPING HIM ALL THE TIME!" He was pointing at Black, who suddenly crossed to the four-poster bed and sank onto it, his face hidden in one shaking hand. Crookshanks leapt up beside him and stepped onto his lap, purring. Ron edged away from both of them, dragging his leg.

"I have not been helping Sirius," said Lupin. "If you'll give me a chance, I'll explain. Look-" He separated Harry's, Ron's, Maddy's and Hermione's wands and threw each back to its owner. "There," said Lupin, sticking his own wand back into his belt. "You're armed, we're not. Now will you listen?"

"If you haven't been helping him," Harry said, with a furious glance at Black, "how did you know he was here?"

"The map," said Lupin. "The Marauder's Map. I was in my office examining it-"

"You know how to work it?" Harry said suspiciously.

"Of course I know how to work it," said Lupin, waving his hand impatiently. "I helped write it. I'm Moony -that was my friends' nickname for me at school."

"You wrote-?"

"The important thing is, I was watching it carefully this evening, because I had an idea that you, Ron, Hermione, Maddy, and Bella might try and sneak out of the castle to visit Hagrid before his hippogriff was executed. And I was right, wasn't I?" He had started to pace up and down, looking at them. Little patches of dust rose at his feet. Maddy's spear followed him everywhere he went.

"You might have been wearing your father's old cloak, Harry-"

"How d'you know about the cloak?"

"The number of times I saw James disappearing under it..." said Lupin, waving an impatient hand again. "The point is, even if you're wearing an Invisibility Cloak, you still show up on the Marauder's Map. I watched you cross the grounds and enter Hagrid's hut. Twenty minutes later, you left Hagrid, and set off back toward the castle. But you were now accompanied by somebody else."

"What?" said Harry. "No, we weren't!"

"I couldn't believe my eyes," said Lupin, still pacing, and ignoring Harry's interruption. "I thought the map must be malfunctioning. How could he be with you?"

"No one was with us!" said Harry.

"And then I saw another dot, moving fast toward you, labeled Sirius Black... I saw him collide with you; I watched as he pulled two of you into the Whomping Willow-"

"One of us!" Ron said angrily.

"Of course," Elliot said quietly. "But then who-?"

"Ah, Elliot," Lupin had developed a slight smile and his eyes glinted the same way when someone answered a difficult question in class. "Have you figure it out?"

"I think so," she nodded slowly. "Ron's rat's an animagus, too, isn't he."

"Yes, very good. Ron, could you please hand over your rat?"

"What?" said Ron. "What's Scabbers got to do with it? He can't be-"

"But he is," said Lupin. "Could I see him, please?"

Ron hesitated, then put a hand inside his robes. Scabbers emerged, thrashing desperately; Ron had to seize his long bald tail to stop him escaping. Crookshanks stood up on Black's leg and made a soft hissing noise. Lupin moved closer to Ron. He seemed to be holding his breath as he gazed intently at Scabbers.

"What?" Ron said again, holding Scabbers close to him, looking scared. "What's my rat got to do with anything? He's just a rat, he can't possibly be an animagus."

"That's not a rat," croaked Sirius Black suddenly.

"Of course he's a rat, we've had him for twelve years!"

"Ron, it's just a rat," Elliot shook her head. "Even if they're wrong you can easily get a new one if it's harmed. You're always harping about how useless it is anyway."

"And if he is an animagus," Maddy said. "You'll be getting rid of someone who's been following your families for a decade."

"There's no downside here," Elliot finished.

"But if he's... who could he be?" Ron asked desperately.

"Peter Pettigrew," Lupin supplied this answer.

"You're both mental," Ron practically spat.

"Ridiculous!" said Hermione faintly.

"How would that even work?" Elliot asked.

"Isn't he dead?" Maddy asked.

"Peter Pettigrew's dead!" said Harry. "He killed him twelve years ago!" He pointed at Black, whose face twitched convulsively.

"I meant to," he growled, his yellow teeth bared, "but little Peter got the better of me... not this time, though!" Crookshanks was thrown to the floor as Black lunged at Scabbers, going under Maddy's spear. Ron let out a yelp of pain as everyone behind Maddy began to topple over.

"Sirius, NO!" Lupin yelled, launching himself forwards and dragging Black away from Ron again, "WAIT! You can't do it just like that... they need to understand... we've got to explain-"

"We can explain afterwards!" snarled Black, trying to throw Lupin off. One hand was still clawing the air as it tried to reach Scabbers, who was squealing like a piglet, scratching Ron's face and neck as he tried to escape.

"They've... got... a... right... to... know... everything!" Lupin panted, still trying to restrain Black. "Ron's kept him as a pet! There are parts of it even I don't understand! And Harry! You owe Harry the truth, Sirius!"

Black stopped struggling, though his hollowed eyes were still fixed on Scabbers, who was clamped tightly under Ron's bitten, scratched, and bleeding hands.

"All right, then," Black said, without taking his eyes off the rat.

"Tell them whatever you like. But make it quick, Remus. I want to commit the murder I was imprisoned for..."

"You're nutters, both of you," said Ron shakily. "I've had enough of this. I'm off."

He tried to heave himself up on his good leg, but Lupin raised his wand again, pointing it at Scabbers. "You're going to hear me out, Ron," he said quietly. "Just keep a tight hold on Peter while you listen."

"HE'S NOT PETER, HE'S SCABBERS!" Ron yelled, trying to force the rat back into his front pocket, but Scabbers was fighting too hard; Ron swayed and overbalanced, and Harry caught him.

"Ron, hand over the rat," Maddy said suddenly.

"I thought you weren't listening to them," Bella said.

"I wouldn't normally listen to a lycanthrope but I don't see the harm in trying. Besides, it's just a rat! An old rat that you hated before it started dying," she was speaking to Ron then. "You can just get a better rat if it somehow dies from this, like El said."

"There were witnesses who saw Pettigrew die," Ron said. "A whole street full of them..."

"They didn't see what they thought they saw!" said Black savagely, still watching Scabbers struggling in Ron's hands.

"Everyone thought Sirius killed Peter," said Lupin, nodding. "I believed it myself, until I saw the map tonight. Because the Marauder's map never lies... Peter's alive. Ron's holding him, Harry."

Hermione spoke, in a trembling, would-be calm sort of voice, as though trying to will Professor Lupin to talk sensibly. "But Professor Lupin... Scabbers can't be Pettigrew... it just can't be true, you know it can't ..."

"Why can't it be true?" Lupin said calmly, as though they were in class, and Hermione had simply spotted a problem in an experiment with grindylows.

"Because... because people would know if Peter Pettigrew had been an Animagus. We did Animagi in class with Professor McGonagall. And I looked them up when I did my homework -the Ministry of Magic keeps tabs on witches and wizards who can become animals; there's a register showing what animal they become, and their markings and things... and I went and looked Professor McGonagall up on the register, and there have been only seven Animagi this century, and Pettigrew's name wasn't on the list-"

"Hermione, you know that Black's an animagus and was his name on that list? No. And there are people ignoring laws all the time," Elliot said.

"Precisely," Lupin said. "In fact, the Ministry never knew that there used to be three unregistered Animagi running around Hogwarts."

"If you're going to tell them the story, get a move on, Remus," snarled Black, who was still watching Scabbers' every desperate move. "I've waited twelve years, I'm not going to wait much longer."

"All right... but you'll need to help me, Sirius," said Lupin, "I only know how it began..." Lupin broke off. There had been a loud creak behind him. The bedroom door had opened of its own accord. All eight of them stared at it. Then Lupin strode toward it and looked out into the landing.

"No one there..."

"This place is haunted!" said Ron.

"No it isn't," Maddy said.

"It's not," said Lupin at the same time, still looking at the door in a puzzled way.

"The Shrieking Shack was never haunted... The screams and howls the villagers used to hear were made by me." He pushed his graying hair out of his eyes, thought for a moment, then said, "That's where all of this starts - with my becoming a werewolf. None of this could have happened if I hadn't been bitten... and if I hadn't been so foolhardy..."

He looked sober and tired. Ron started to interrupt, but Hermione said, "Shh!" She was watching Lupin very intently.

"I was a very small boy when I received the bite. My parents tried everything, but in those days there was no cure. The potion that Professor Snape has been making for me is a very recent discovery. It makes me safe, you see. As long as I take it in the week preceding the full moon, I keep my mind when I transform... I am able to curl up in my office, a harmless wolf, and wait for the moon to wane again.

"Before the Wolfsbane Potion was discovered, however, I became a fully fledged monster once a month. It seemed impossible that I would be able to come to Hogwarts. Other parents weren't likely to want their children exposed to me.

"But then Dumbledore became Headmaster, and he was sympathetic. He said that as long as we took certain precautions, there was no reason I shouldn't come to school..." Lupin sighed, and looked directly at Harry. "I told you, months ago, that the Whomping Willow was planted the year I came to Hogwarts. The truth is that it was planted because I came to Hogwarts. This house-" Lupin looked miserably around the room, "-the tunnel that leads to it - they were built for my use. Once a month, I was smuggled out of the castle, into this place, to transform. The tree was placed at the tunnel mouth to stop anyone coming across me while I was dangerous.

"My transformations in those days were-were terrible. It is very painful to turn into a werewolf. I was separated from humans to bite, so I bit and scratched myself instead. The villagers heard the noise and the screaming and thought they were hearing particularly violent spirits. Dumbledore encouraged the rumor... Even now, when the house has been silent for years, the villagers don't dare approach it...

"But apart from my transformations, I was happier than I had ever been in my life. For the first time ever, I had friends, three great friends. Sirius Black... Peter Pettigrew... and, of course, your father, Harry, James Potter.

"Now, my three friends could hardly fail to notice that I disappeared once a month. I made up all sorts of stories. I told them my mother was ill, and that I had to go home to see her... I was terrified they would desert me the moment they found out what I was. But of course, they, like you, Hermione, worked out the truth...

"And they didn't desert me at all. Instead, they did something for me that would make my transformations not only bearable, but the best times of my life. They became Animagi."

"My dad too?" said Harry, astounded.

"Yes, indeed," said Lupin. "It took them the best part of three years to work out how to do it. Your father and Sirius here were the cleverest students in the school, and lucky they were, because the Animagus transformation can go horribly wrong - one reason the Ministry keeps a close watch on those attempting to do it. Peter needed all the help he could get from James and Sirius. Finally, in our fifth year, they managed it. They could each turn into a different animal at will."

"But how did that help you?" said Hermione, sounding puzzled.

"They couldn't keep me company as humans, so they kept me company as animals," said Lupin. "A werewolf is only a danger to people. They sneaked out of the castle every month under James's Invisibility Cloak. They transformed... Peter, as the smallest, could slip beneath the Willow's attacking branches and touch the knot that freezes it. They would then slip down the tunnel and join me. Under their influence, I became less dangerous. My body was still wolfish, but my mind seemed to become less so while I was with them."

"Hurry up, Remus," snarled Black, who was still watching Scabbers with a horrible sort of hunger on his face.

"I'm getting there, Sirius, I'm getting there... well, highly exciting possibilities were open to us now that we could all transform. Soon we were leaving the Shrieking Shack and roaming the school grounds and the village by night. Sirius and James transformed into such large animals, they were able to keep a werewolf in check. I doubt whether any Hogwarts students ever found out more about the Hogwarts grounds and Hogsmeade than we did... And that's how we came to write the Marauder's Map, and sign it with our nicknames. Sirius is Padfoot. Peter is Wormtail. James was Prongs."

"What sort of animal-?" Harry began, but Hermione cut him off.

"That was still really dangerous! Running around in the dark with a werewolf! What if you'd given the others the slip, and bitten somebody?"

"A thought that still haunts me," said Lupin heavily. "And there were near misses, many of them. We laughed about them afterwards. We were young, thoughtless, carried away with our own cleverness."

"I sometimes felt guilty about betraying Dumbledore's trust, of course... he had admitted me to Hogwarts when no other headmaster would have done so, and he had no idea I was breaking the rules he had set down for my own and others' safety. He never knew I had led three fellow students into becoming Animagi illegally. But I always managed to forget my guilty feelings every time we sat down to plan our next month's adventure. And I haven't changed..." Lupin's face had hardened, and there was self-disgust in his voice.

"All this year, I have been battling with myself, wondering whether I should tell Dumbledore that Sirius was an Animagus. But I didn't do it. Why? Because I was too cowardly. It would have meant admitting that I'd betrayed his trust while I was at school, admitting that I'd led others along with me... and Dumbledore's trust has meant everything to me. He let me into Hogwarts as a boy, and he gave me a job when I have been shunned all my adult life, unable to find paid work because of what I am. And so I convinced myself that Sirius was getting into the school using dark arts he learned from Voldemort, that being an Animagus had nothing to do with it... so, in a way, Snape's been right about me all along."

"Snape?" said Black harshly, taking his eyes off Scabbers for the first time in minutes and looking up at Lupin. "What's Snape got to do with it?"

"He's here, Sirius," said Lupin heavily. "He's teaching here as well." He looked up at Harry, Ron, Hermione, Bella, Maddy and Elliot.

"Professor Snape was at school with us. He fought very hard against my appointment to the Defense Against the Dark Arts job. He has been telling Dumbledore all year that I am not to be trusted. He has his reasons... you see, Sirius here played a trick on him which nearly killed him, a trick which involved me-"

Black made a derisive noise. "It served him right," he sneered. "Sneaking around, trying to find out what we were up to... hoping he could get us expelled..."

"Severus was very interested in where I went every month." Lupin told Harry, Ron, Hermione, Maddy, Elliot and Bella. "We were in the same year, you know, and we, er, didn't like each other very much. He especially disliked James. Jealous, I think, of James's talent on the Quidditch field... anyway Snape had seen me crossing the grounds with Madam Pomfrey one evening as she led me toward the Whomping Willow to transform. Sirius thought it would be, er, amusing, to tell Snape all he had to do was prod the knot on the tree trunk with a long stick, and he'd be able to get in after me. Well, of course, Snape tried it, if he'd got as far as this house, he'd have met a fully grown werewolf, but your father, who'd heard what Sirius had done, went after Snape and pulled him back, at great risk to his life... Snape glimpsed me, though, at the end of the tunnel. He was forbidden by Dumbledore to tell anybody, but from that time on he knew what I was..."

"So that's why Snape doesn't like you," said Harry slowly, "because he thought you were in on the joke?"

"That's right," sneered a cold voice from the wall behind Lupin. Severus Snape was pulling off the Invisibility Cloak, his wand pointing directly at Lupin.


	9. Peter Pettigrew

Hermione screamed, Bella and Elliot jumped, Maddy yelped, Harry and Ron adopted defensive positions and Black jumped to his feet.

"I found this at the base of the Whomping Willow," said Snape, throwing Harry's invisibility cloak aside, careful to keep this wand pointing directly at Lupin's chest. "Very useful, Potter, I thank you..." Snape was slightly breathless, but his face was full of suppressed triumph. "You're wondering, perhaps, how I knew you were here?" he said, his eyes glittering. "I've just been to your office, Lupin. You forgot to take your potion tonight, so I took a gobletful along. And very lucky I did... lucky for me, I mean. Lying on your desk was a certain map. One glance at it told me all I needed to know. I saw you running along this passageway and out of sight."

"Severus-" Lupin began, but Snape overrode him.

"I've told the headmaster again and again that you're helping your old friend Black into the castle, Lupin, and here's the proof. Not even I dreamed you would have the nerve to use this old place as your hideout-"

"Severus, you're making a mistake," said Lupin urgently. "You haven't heard everything, I can explain, Sirius is _not_ here to kill Harry-"

"Two more for Azkaban tonight," said Snape, his eyes now gleaming fanatically. "I shall be interested to see how Dumbledore takes this... He was quite convinced you were harmless, you know, Lupin... _a tame werewolf-_ "

"You fool," said Lupin softly. "Is a schoolboy grudge worth putting an innocent man back inside Azkaban?"

 _BANG!_ Thin, snakelike cords burst from the end of Snape's wand and twisted themselves around Lupin's mouth, wrists, and ankles; he overbalanced and fell to the floor, unable to move. With a roar of rage, Black started toward Snape, but Snape pointed his wand straight between Black's eyes.

"Give me a reason," he whispered. "Give me a reason to do it, and I swear I will."

Black stopped dead. It would have been impossible to say which face showed more hatred. Hermione, however, took an uncertain step toward Snape and said, in a very breathless voice, "Professor Snape, it-it wouldn't hurt to hear what they've got to say, w-would it?"

"Miss Granger, you are already facing suspension from this school," Snape spat. "You, Potter, Weasley, Mender, de la Mare and Nevra are all out-of-bounds, in the company of a convicted murderer and a werewolf, not to mention Miss Mender has a dangerous weapon. For once in your life, _hold your tongue_."

"You do realize that wands are weapons, right?" Maddy muttered.

"But if-if there was a mistake-" Hermione stammered.

"KEEP QUIET, YOU STUPID GIRL!" Snape shouted, looking suddenly quite deranged. "DON'T TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!" A few sparks shot out of the end of his wand, which was still pointed at Black's face. Hermione fell silent. "Vengeance is very sweet," Snape breathed at Black. "How I hoped I would be the one to catch you..."

"The joke's on you again, Severus," Black snarled. "As long as this boy brings his rat up to the castle-" he jerked his head at Ron "-I'll come quietly..."

"Up to the castle?" said Snape silkily. "I don't think we need to go that far. All I have to do is call the dementors once we get out of the Willow. They'll be very pleased to see you, Black... pleased enough to give you a little kiss, I daresay..."

What little color there was in Black's face left it.

"You-you've got to hear me out," he croaked. "The rat - look at the rat-"

But there was a mad glint in Snape's eyes that Maddy had never seen before. He seemed beyond reason.

"Come on, all of you," he said. He clicked his fingers, and the ends of the cords that bound Lupin flew to his hands. "I'll drag the werewolf. Perhaps the dementors will have a kiss for him too-"

Harry had suddenly crossed the room in three strides and blocked the door.

"Get out of the way, Potter, you're in enough trouble already," snarled Snape. "If I hadn't been here to save your skin-"

"Professor Lupin could have killed me about a hundred times this year," Harry said. "I've been alone with him loads of times, having defense lessons against the dementors. If he was helping Black, why didn't he just finish me off then?"

"Don't ask me to fathom the way a werewolf's mind works," hissed Snape. "Get out of the way, Potter."

"YOU'RE PATHETIC!" Harry yelled, Maddy saw Elliot give a gaping smile and begin to silently clap. "JUST BECAUSE THEY MADE A FOOL OF YOU AT SCHOOL YOU WON'T EVEN LISTEN-"

"SILENCE! I WILL NOT BE SPOKEN TO LIKE THAT!" Snape shrieked, looking madder than ever. "Like father, like son, Potter! I have just saved your neck; you should be thanking me on bended knee! You would have been well served if he'd killed you! You'd have died like your father, too arrogant to believe you might be mistaken in Black, now get out of the way, or I will make you. GET OUT OF THE WAY, POTTER!"

Maddy shifted her grip on her spear, then just before just about everyone else in the room shouted " _Expelliarmus_!" she pushed him backwards with the staff of it.

There was a blast from the spells that made the door rattle on its hinges; Snape was lifted off his feet and slammed into the wall, then slid down it to the floor, a trickle of blood oozing from under his hair. He had been knocked out.

"You shouldn't have done that," said Black, looking at each of the students. "You should have left him to me..."

"It's fine, we've all been _dying_ to attack him," Elliot replied, "the stupid git."

What followed next was Hermione panicking about attacking a teacher, some more explanation, Black found out about Scabbers because of a copy of the _Daily Prophet_ that he had been given from the Minister of Magic with a picture of the Weasleys in Egypt over the summer where Scabbers was in it. Then, Black explained that the Potter's secret keeper had been Pettigrew because Black would have been expected and then, they forced Scabbers to become human again and he was indeed Pettigrew.

He was a very short man, hardly taller than Harry, Bella and Hermione. His thin, colorless hair was unkempt and there was a large bald patch on top. He had the shrunken appearance of a plump man who has lost a lot of weight in a short time. His skin looked grubby, almost like Scabbers' fur, and something of the rat lingered around his pointed nose and his very small, watery eyes. He looked around at them all, his breathing fast and shallow.

"Well, hello, Peter," said Lupin pleasantly, as though rats frequently erupted into old school friends around him. "Long time, no see."

"S-Sirius... R-Remus..." Even Pettigrew's voice was squeaky. Sis eyes darted toward the door. "My friends... my old friends..."

Black's wand arm rose, but Lupin seized him around the wrist, gave him a warning look, then turned again to Pettigrew, his voice light and casual.

"We've been having a little chat, Peter, about what happened the night Lily and James died. You might have missed the finer points while you were squeaking around down there on the bed-"

"Remus," gasped Pettigrew, and Harry could see beads of sweat breaking out over his pasty face, "you don't believe him, do you...? He tried to kill me, Remus..."

"So we've heard," said Lupin, more coldly. "I'd like to clear up one or two little matters with you, Peter, if you'd be so-"

"He's come to try and kill me again!" Pettigrew squeaked suddenly, pointing at Black, and Harry saw that he used his middle finger, because his index was missing. "He killed Lily and James and now he's going to kill me too... You've got to help me, Remus..."

"No one's going to try and kill you until we've sorted a few things out," said Lupin.

"Sorted things out?" squealed Pettigrew, looking wildly around him once more, eyes taking in the boarded windows and, again, the only door. "I knew he'd come after me! I knew he'd be back for me! I've been waiting for this for twelve years!"

"You knew Sirius was going to break out of Azkaban?" said Lupin, his brow furrowed. "When nobody has ever done it before?"

"He's got dark powers the rest of us can only dream of!" Pettigrew shouted shrilly. "How else did he get out of there? I suppose He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named taught him a few tricks!"

Black started to laugh, a horrible, mirthless laugh that filled the whole room. "Voldemort, teach me tricks?" he said. Pettigrew flinched as though Black had brandished a whip at him. "What, scared to hear your old master's name?" said Black. "I don't blame you, Peter. His lot aren't very happy with you, are they?"

"Don't know what you mean, Sirius-" muttered Pettigrew, his breathing faster than ever. His whole face was shining with sweat now.

"You haven't been hiding from me for twelve years," said Black. "You've been hiding from Voldemort's old supporters. I heard things in Azkaban, Peter... They all think you're dead, or you'd have to answer to them... I've heard them screaming all sorts of things in their sleep. Sounds like they think the double-crosser double-crossed them. Voldemort went to the Potters' on your information... and Voldemort met his downfall there. And not all Voldemort's supporters ended up in Azkaban, did they? There are still plenty out here, biding their time, pretending they've seen the error of their ways... If they ever got wind that you were still alive, Peter-"

"Don't know... what you're talking about..." said Pettigrew again, more shrilly than ever. He wiped his face on his sleeve and looked up at Lupin. "You don't believe this-this madness, Remus-"

"I must admit, Peter, I have difficulty in understanding why an innocent man would want to spend twelve years as a rat," said Lupin evenly.

"Innocent, but scared!" squealed Pettigrew. "If Voldemort's supporters were after me, it was because I put one of their best men in Azkaban -the spy, Sirius Black!"

Black's face contorted. "How dare you," he growled, sounding suddenly like the bear sized dog he had been. "I, a spy for Voldemort? When did I ever sneak around people who were stronger and more powerful than myself? But you, Peter, I'll never understand why I didn't see you were the spy from the start. You always liked big friends who'd look after you, didn't you? It used to be us... me and Remus... and James..."

Pettigrew wiped his face again; he was almost panting for breath.

"Me, a spy... must be out of your mind... never... don't know how you can say such a-"

"Lily and James only made you Secret-Keeper because I suggested it," Black hissed, so venomously that Pettigrew took a step backward. "I thought it was the perfect plan... a bluff... Voldemort would be sure to come after me, would never dream they'd use a weak, talentless thing like you... It must have been the finest moment of your miserable life, telling Voldemort you could hand him the Potters."

Pettigrew was muttering distractedly; Maddy caught words like "far-fetched" and "lunacy," but she couldn't help paying more attention to the ashen color of Pettigrew's face and the way his eyes continued to dart toward the windows and door.

"Professor Lupin?" said Hermione timidly. "Can-can I say something?"

"Certainly, Hermione," said Lupin courteously.

"Well, Scabbers - I mean, this-this man, he's been sleeping in Harry's dormitory for three years. If he's working for You-Know-Who, how come he never tried to hurt Harry before now?"

"There!" said Pettigrew shrilly, pointing at Ron with his maimed hand. "Thank you! You see, Remus? I have never hurt a hair of Harry's head! Why should I?"

"I'll tell you why," said Black. "Because you never did anything for anyone unless you could see what was in it for you. Voldemort's been in hiding for fifteen years, they say he's half dead. You weren't about to commit murder right under Albus Dumbledore's nose, for a wreck of a wizard who'd lost all of his power, were you? You'd want to be quite sure he was the biggest bully in the playground before you went back to him, wouldn't you? Why else did you find a wizard family to take you in? Keeping an ear out for news, weren't you, Peter? Just in case your old protector regained strength, and it was safe to rejoin him..."

Pettigrew opened his mouth and closed it several times. He seemed to have lost the ability to talk.

"Er, Mr Black - Sirius?" said Hermione. Black jumped at being addressed like this and stared at Hermione as though he had never seen anything quite like her. "If you don't mind me asking, how-how did you get out of Azkaban, if you didn't use Dark Magic?"

"Thank you!" gasped Pettigrew, nodding frantically at her. "Exactly! Precisely what I-"

But Lupin silenced him with a look. Black was frowning slightly at Hermione, but not as though he were annoyed with her. He seemed to be pondering his answer.

"I don't know how I did it," he said slowly. "I think the only reason I never lost my mind is that I knew I was innocent. That wasn't a happy thought, so the dementors couldn't suck it out of me... but it kept me sane and knowing who I am... helped me keep my powers... so when it all became... too much... I could transform in my cell... become a dog. Dementors can't see, you know..." He swallowed. "They feel their way toward people by feeding off their emotions... They could tell that my feelings were less - less human, less complex when I was a dog... but they thought, of course, that I was losing my mind like everyone else in there, so it didn't trouble them. But I was weak, very weak, and I had no hope of driving them away from me without a wand...

"But then I saw Peter in that picture... I realized he was at Hogwarts with Harry... perfectly positioned to act, if one hint reached his ears that the Dark Side was gathering strength again..." Pettigrew was shaking his head, mouthing noiselessly, but staring all the while at Black as though hypnotized. "...ready to strike at the moment he could be sure of allies... and to deliver the last Potter to them. If he gave them Harry, who'd dare say he'd betrayed Lord Voldemort? He'd be welcomed back with honours...

"So you see, I had to do something. I was the only one who knew Peter was still alive..."

"The guards say he's been talking in his sleep... always the same words... 'He's at Hogwarts.' " Harry said as if remembering something.

"It was as if someone had lit a fire in my head, and the dementors couldn't destroy it... It wasn't a happy feeling... it was an obsession... but it gave me strength, it cleared my mind. So, one night when they opened my door to bring food, I slipped past them as a dog... It's so much harder for them to sense animal emotions that they were confused... I was thin, very thin... thin enough to slip through the bars... I swam as a dog back to the mainland... I journeyed north and slipped into the Hogwarts grounds as a dog. I've been living in the forest ever since, except when I came to watch the Quidditch, of course. You fly as well as your father did, Harry..."

He looked at Harry, who did not look away.

"Believe me," croaked Black. "Believe me, Harry. I never betrayed James and Lily. I would have died before I betrayed them." There was a pause and then Harry nodded.

"No!" Pettigrew had fallen to his knees as though Harry's nod had been his own death sentence. He shuffled forward on his knees, groveling, his hands clasped in front of him as though praying. "Sirius, it's me... it's Peter... your friend... you wouldn't..."

Black kicked out and Pettigrew recoiled. "There's enough filth on my robes without you touching them," said Black.

"Remus!" Pettigrew squeaked, turning to Lupin instead, writhing imploringly in front of him. "You don't believe this... wouldn't Sirius have told you they'd changed the plan?"

"Not if he thought I was the spy, Peter," said Lupin. "I assume that's why you didn't tell me, Sirius?" he said casually over Pettigrew's head.

"Forgive me, Remus," said Black.

"Not at all, Padfoot, old friend," said Lupin, who was now rolling up his sleeves. "And will you, in turn, forgive me for believing you were the spy?"

"Of course," said Black, and the ghost of a grin flitted across his gaunt face. He, too, began rolling up his sleeves. "Shall we kill him together?"

"Yes, I think so," said Lupin grimly.

"You wouldn't... you won't..." gasped Pettigrew. And he scrambled around to Ron.

"Ron... haven't I been a good friend... a good pet? You won't let them kill me, Ron, will you... you're on my side, aren't you?"

But Ron was staring at Pettigrew with the utmost revulsion. "I let you sleep in my bed!" he said.

"Kind boy... kind master..." Pettigrew crawled toward Ron, "you won't let them do it... I was your rat... I was a good pet..."

"If you made a better rat than a human, it's not much to boast about, Peter," said Black harshly. Ron, going still paler with pain, wrenched his broken leg out of Pettigrew's reach. Pettigrew turned on his knees, staggered forward, and seized the hem of Bella's robes.

"Nice girl... compassionate girl... you won't l-let them-" He stopped when Bella forced herself away from him and when he noticed that she was clearly restraining herself from kicking him right in the face. Then he turned to Hermione.

"Sweet girl... clever girl... you-you won't let them... Help me..."

Hermione pulled her robes out of Pettigrew's clutching hands and backed away against the wall, looking horrified.

Pettigrew glanced over to Maddy and Elliot, then decided against it, probably because he saw the deadly spear and expression of repulsion on Maddy's face and the wand steadily held in Elliot's hand, paired with the fact that he had been around Elliot before and could probably guess that she would show almost no mercy whatsoever and probably try to skewer him with Maddy's spear.

Pettigrew knelt, trembling uncontrollably, and turned his head slowly toward Harry.

"Harry... Harry... you look just like your father... just like him..."

"HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO HARRY?" roared Black. "HOW DARE YOU FACE HIM? HOW DARE YOU TALK ABOUT JAMES IN FRONT OF HIM?"

"Harry," whispered Pettigrew, shuffling toward him, hands outstretched. "Harry, James wouldn't have wanted me killed... James would have understood, Harry... he would have shown me mercy..."

Both Black and Lupin strode forward, seized Pettigrew's shoulders, and threw him backward onto the floor. He sat there, twitching with terror, staring up at them.

"You sold Lily and James to Voldemort," said Black, who was shaking too. "Do you deny it?"

Pettigrew burst into tears. It was horrible to watch, like an oversized, balding baby, cowering on the floor. "Sirius, Sirius, what could I have done? The Dark Lord... you have no idea... he has weapons you can't imagine... I was scared, Sirius, I was never brave like you and Remus and James. I never meant it to happen... He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named forced me-"

"DON'T LIE!" bellowed Black. "YOU'D BEEN PASSING INFORMATION TO HIM FOR A YEAR BEFORE LILY AND JAMES DIED! YOU WERE HIS SPY!"

"He-he was taking over everywhere!" gasped Pettigrew. "Wh-what was there to be gained by refusing him?"

"What was there to be gained by fighting the most evil wizard who has ever existed?" said Black, with a terribly fury in his face. "Only innocent lives, Peter!"

"You don't understand!" whined Pettigrew. "He would have killed me, Sirius!"

"THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED!" roared Black. "DIED RATHER THAN BETRAY YOUR FRIENDS, AS WE WOULD HAVE DONE FOR YOU!"

Black and Lupin stood shoulder to shoulder, wands raised.

"You should have realized," said Lupin quietly, "if Voldemort didn't kill you, we would. Good-bye, Peter."

Hermione covered her face with her hands and turned to the wall.

"NO!" Harry yelled. He ran forward, placing himself in front of Pettigrew, facing the wands. "You can't kill him," he said breathlessly. "You can't."

Black and Lupin both looked staggered.

"Harry, this piece of vermin is the reason you have no parents," Black snarled. "This cringing bit of filth would have seen you die too, without turning a hair. You heard him. His own stinking skin meant more to him than your whole family."

"I know," Harry panted. "We'll take him up to the castle. We'll hand him over to the dementors... He can go to Azkaban... but don't kill him."

"Harry!" gasped Pettigrew, and he flung his arms around Harry's knees. "You - thank you - it's more than I deserve - thank you-"

"Get off me," Harry spat, throwing Pettigrew's hands off him in disgust. "I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing it because I don't reckon my dad would've wanted them to become killers just for you."

No one moved or made a sound except Pettigrew, whose breath was coming in wheezes as he clutched his chest. Black and Lupin were looking at each other. Then, with one movement, they lowered their wands.

"You're the only person who has the right to decide, Harry," said Black. "But think... think what he did..."

"He can go to Azkaban," Harry repeated. "If anyone deserves that place, he does..."

Pettigrew was still wheezing behind him.

"Very well," said Lupin. "Stand aside, Harry."

Harry hesitated.

"I'm going to tie him up," said Lupin. "That's all, I swear." Harry stepped out of the way. Thin cords shot from Lupin's wand this time, and next moment, Pettigrew was wriggling on the floor, bound and gagged.

"But if you transform, Peter," growled Black, his own wand pointing at Pettigrew too, "we will kill you. You agree, Harry?"

Harry looked down at the pitiful figure on the floor and nodded so that Pettigrew could see him.

"Right," said Lupin, suddenly businesslike. "Ron, I can't mend bones nearly as well as Madam Pomfrey, so I think it's best if we just strap your leg up until we can get you to the hospital wing."

He hurried over to Ron, bent down, tapped Ron's leg with his wand, and muttered, " _Ferula_." Bandages spun up Ron's leg, strapping it tightly to a splint. Lupin helped him to his feet; Ron put his weight gingerly on the leg and didn't wince.

"That's better," he said. "Thanks."

"What about Professor Snape?" said Hermione in a small voice, looking down at Snape's prone figure.

"There's nothing seriously wrong with him," said Lupin, bending over Snape and checking his pulse. "You were just a little... overenthusiastic. Still out cold. Er, perhaps it will be best if we don't revive him until we're safely back in the castle. We can take him like this..."

He muttered, " _Mobilicorpus_." As though invisible strings were tied to Snape's wrists, neck, and knees, he was pulled into a standing position, head still lolling unpleasantly, like a grotesque puppet. He hung a few inches above the ground, his limp feet dangling. Lupin picked up the Invisibility Cloak and tucked it safely into his pocket.

"And two of us should be chained to this," said Black, nudging Pettigrew with his toe. "Just to make sure."

"I'll do it," said Lupin.

"And me," said Ron savagely, limping forward.

Black conjured heavy manacles from thin air; soon Pettigrew was upright again, left arm chained to Lupin's right, right arm to Ron's left. Ron's face was set. He seemed to have taken Scabbers' true identity as a personal insult. Crookshanks leapt lightly off the bed and led the way out of the room, his bottlebrush tail held jauntily high.

Crookshanks led the way down the stairs; Lupin, Pettigrew, and Ron went next, looking like entrants in a six-legged race. Next came Professor Snape, drifting creepily along, his toes hitting each stair as they descended, held up by his own wand, which was being pointed at him by Sirius. Maddy, Bella and Elliot walked just behind him and then Harry and Hermione brought up the rear.

Getting back into the tunnel was difficult. Lupin, Pettigrew, and Ron had to turn sideways to manage it; Lupin still had Pettigrew covered with his wand. Maddy could see them edging awkwardly along the tunnel in single file. Crookshanks was still in the lead. Black had fallen back to be standing nearer to Harry, though Snape was still floating ahead of them, hitting his head on the top of the cave repeatedly. Maddy had the impression Black was making no effort to prevent this.

Once they got back outside the grounds were very dark; the only light came from the distant windows of the castle. Without a word, they set off. Pettigrew was still wheezing and occasionally whimpering.

"One wrong move, Peter," said Lupin threateningly ahead. His wand was still pointed sideways at Pettigrew's chest. Silently they tramped through the grounds, the castle lights growing slowly larger. Snape was still drifting weirdly ahead of Black, his chin bumping on his chest.

A cloud suddenly shifted. There were suddenly dim shadows on the ground. Their party was bathed in moonlight. Snape collided with Lupin, Pettigrew, and Ron, who had stopped abruptly. Black froze. He flung out one arm to make Harry, Maddy, Elliot, Bella and Hermione stop.

Maddy could see Lupin's silhouette. He had gone rigid. Then his limbs began to shake.

"Oh, my-" Hermione gasped. "He didn't take his potion tonight! He's not safe!"

"Run," Black whispered. "Run. Now."

Elliot was gone almost immediately but no one else moved. Maddy quickly got her spear out again and forced herself in front of Black, she aimed her weapon and brought it down on the chain between Pettigrew and Lupin but it didn't break.

"Leave it to me!" Black yelled, pushing Maddy aside.

There was a terrible snarling noise. Lupin's head was lengthening. So was his body. His shoulders were hunching. Hair was sprouting visibly on his face and hands, which were curling into clawed paws.

Bella then burst forward, wrapped her arms around Ron just as Pettigrew back a rat again and bolted. She pulled and the chain broke, causing her and Ron to stumble backwards.

The werewolf reared and snapped it's long jaws, Black had turned back into a dog, he leaped on the werewolf just as it wrenched off the remaining bits of the broken chains. Black bit into it's neck and pulled it away from the others. There was lots of growling and the two were locked, jaw to jaw, fighting and ripping and tearing at each other.

Then the werewolf managed to get out of Black's grasp, let out a loud, earsplitting howl and ran off into the woods. Black was bleeding profusely from a scratch on his muzzle and one long one across his back, but he ignored this and followed after the werewolf.

Everyone who was left gathered around Ron who had lost consciousness, undoubtedly from the pain in his leg combined with the very forceful pull Bella had used and then the impact with the ground.

"We better get them back up to the castle and tell someone," Harry said, gesturing to Ron and then Snape. "Come-" He stopped when there was a high pitched yowl of pain from the direction Black had run in and he said, under his breath, " _Sirius_."

"Harry, no," Maddy said. "He can handle himself." But Harry wasn't listening, he had set off running and Hermione and Bella followed close behind him. Maddy sighed, looked down at Ron and Snape and then over at her retreating friends.

"They're fine," she decided. "Bella's there, she can handle it, she probably has a weapon on her and Hermione can handle it too." She bent down, situated Ron and Snape on her shoulders, which was very awkward since Ron was at least a solid foot taller than her and Snape was even taller. This meant that their feet and lower legs were being dragged along on the ground and Maddy walked toward the castle, very slowly since she was already exhausted and the two weren't exactly light.

Maddy's trek then, of course, was made even more difficult as the dementors began to flock toward the forest, none got that close to her but it was still making her woozy and sad and causing her to hear and see things.

" _Maddy!"_ She could hear Maude yell, over and over again, interlacing with the sound of a non-existent battle, her final words and the death of Lara. Maddy's name, shouted by Maude continuously echoed in her ears as the audio of the memory played on with the occasional flash of Manhattan, spattered in blood.

By the time she had gotten to the doors of Hogwarts she was sobbing uncontrollably, she could feel that Snape was beginning to stir and he and Ron were just getting heavier and heavier on her back and shoulders. Her legs shook beneath her and Maddy knew that they would give way any moment.

On her way to the first staircase, Maddy heard someone yell something that she didn't really register, though she knew somewhere that it was McGonagall and she also knew somewhere that she should have turned to get help from the deputy headmistress instead of struggling on towards the stairs on her own all the way to the hospital wing.

Either way, she didn't make it to the stairs because just as she was about to set foot on it her legs felt like jelly and she fell to the ground. Her head hit hard on a step, as did Ron and Snape's, both of them laid limp of the ground, Snape still beginning to wake up but not quite conscious yet and Ron even more asleep than ever.

"Miss Mender!" McGonagall exclaimed, and suddenly she was crouching over Maddy who didn't have the strength to move. "What's the matter? What has happened to Mr Weasley and Severus?"

"The... the Forbidden Forest," Maddy said weakly. "Harry, Ron, Hermione, Bella, Professor Lupin and... they're in the forest and there're dementors."

This was when Snape sat up, groaning and glaring and Maddy. She didn't really pay attention to what happened next, she knew that McGonagall and Snape rapidly conversed and then McGonagall was carrying Maddy and Ron up the stairs and then they were in hospital wing, getting tended by Madam Pomfrey.

And then, it was all dark. Maddy had passed out.


	10. Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tada, the final chapter... no telling when GoF will be out, I'm only on the Yule Ball at the moment... also theres school and stuff so :\

"Shocking business... shocking... miracle none of them died... never heard the like... it was lucky you were there, Snape..." Was the first thing Maddy heard when she came to.

"Thank you, Minister."

"Order of Merlin, Second Class, I'd say. First Class, if I can manage it!"

"Thank you very much indeed, Minister."

"Nasty cut you've got there... Black's work, I suppose?"

"As a matter of fact, it was Potter, Weasley, Nevra, de la Mare, and Granger, Minister..."

" _No!_ And this bruise?"

"Mender. Black had bewitched them, I saw it immediately. A Confundus Charm, to judge by their behavior. They seemed to think there was a possibility he was innocent. They weren't responsible for their actions. On the other hand, their interference might have permitted Black to escape... They obviously thought they were going to catch Black single-handed. They've got away with a great deal before now... I'm afraid it's given them a rather high opinion of themselves... and of course Potter has always been allowed an extraordinary amount of lineance by the headmaster-"

"Ah, well, Snape... Harry Potter, you know... we've all got a bit of a blind spot where he's concerned."

"And yet, is it good for him to be given so much special treatment? Personally, I try and treat him like any other student. And any other student would be suspended at the very least for leading his friends into such danger. Consider, Minister, against all school rules, after all the precautions put in place for his protection, out-of-bounds, at night, consorting with a werewolf and a murderer - and I have reason to believe he has been visiting Hogsmeade illegally too-"

"Well, well... we shall see, Snape, we shall see... The boy has undoubtedly been foolish..."

"What amazes me most is the behavior of the dementors... you've really no idea what made them retreat, Snape?"

"No, Minister... I had been inside when I came back around..."

"Extraordinary. And yet Black, and Harry, and the girls-"

"All unconscious by the time I reached them. I bound and gagged Black, naturally, conjured stretchers, and brought them all straight back to the castle."

Madam Pomfrey now came walking briskly up the dark ward to Harry's bed. Maddy turned to look at her. She was carrying the largest block of chocolate she had ever seen in her life, it looked like a small boulder.

"Ah, you're all awake!" she said briskly. She placed the chocolate on Harry's bedside table and began breaking it apart with a small hammer.

"How's Ron?" said Harry and Hermione together.

"He'll live," said Madam Pomfrey grimly. "As for you all... you'll be staying here until I'm satisfied you're - Potter, what do you think you're doing?" Harry was sitting up, putting his glasses back on, and picking up his wand.

"I need to see the headmaster," he said.

"Potter," said Madam Pomfrey soothingly, "it's alright. They've got Black. He's locked away upstairs. The dementors will be performing the kiss any moment now-"

"WHAT?" Harry jumped up out of bed; Hermione and Bella had done the same. But his shout had been heard in the corridor outside; next second, Cornelius Fudge and Snape had entered the ward.

"Harry, Harry, what's this?" said Fudge, looking agitated. "You should be in bed - has he had any chocolate?" he asked Madam Pomfrey anxiously.

"Minister, listen!" Harry said. "Sirius Black's innocent! Peter Pettigrew faked his own death! We saw him tonight! You can't let the dementors do that thing to Sirius, he's-"

But Fudge was shaking his head with a small smile on his face. "Harry, Harry, you're very confused, you've been through a dreadful ordeal, lie back down, now, we've got everything under control..."

"YOU HAVEN'T!" Harry yelled. "YOU'VE GOT THE WRONG MAN!"

"Minister, listen, please," Hermione said; she had hurried to Harry's side and was gazing imploringly into Fudge's face. "I saw him too. It was Ron's rat, he's an Animagus, Pettigrew, I mean, and-"

"You see, Minister?" said Snape. "Confunded, both of them... Black's done a very good job on them..."

"We weren't confunded!" Maddy exclaimed, sitting up violently, still feeling as if her legs would give way if she were to stand up on them.

"Minister! Professor!" said Madam Pomfrey angrily. "I must insist that you leave. They are my patients, and they should not be distressed!"

"I'm not distressed, I'm trying to tell them what happened!" Harry said furiously. "If they'd just listen-" But Madam Pomfrey suddenly stuffed a large chunk of chocolate into Harry's mouth; he choked, and she seized the opportunity to force him back onto the bed.

"Now, please, Minister, these children need care. Please leave-"

The door opened again. It was Dumbledore. Harry swallowed his mouthful of chocolate with great difficulty and got up again.

"Professor Dumbledore, Sirius Black-"

"For heaven's sake!" said Madam Pomfrey hysterically. "Is this a hospital wing or not? Headmaster, I must insist-"

"My apologies, Poppy, but I need a word with Mr Potter and Miss Granger," said Dumbledore calmly. "I have just been talking to Sirius Black-"

"I suppose he's told you the same fairy tale he's planted in Potter's mind?" spat Snape. "Something about a rat, and Pettigrew being alive-"

"That, indeed, is Black's story," said Dumbledore, surveying Snape closely through his half-moon spectacles.

"And does my evidence count for nothing?" snarled Snape.

"Peter Pettigrew was not in the Shrieking Shack, nor did I see any sign of him on the grounds."

"That was because you were knocked out, Professor!" said Hermione earnestly. "You didn't arrive in time to hear-"

"Miss Granger, HOLD YOUR TONGUE!"

"Now, Snape," said Fudge, startled, "the young lady is disturbed in her mind, we must make allowances-"

"I would like to speak to Harry and Hermione alone," said Dumbledore abruptly. "Cornelius, Severus, Poppy, please leave us."

"Headmaster!" sputtered Madam Pomfrey "They need treatment, they need rest-"

"This cannot wait," said Dumbledore. "I must insist."

Madam Pomfrey pursed her lips and strode away into her office at the end of the ward, slamming the door behind her. Fudge consulted the large gold pocket watch dangling from his waistcoat.

"The dementors should have arrived by now," he said. "I'll go and meet them. Dumbledore, I'll see you upstairs." He crossed to the door and held it open for Snape, but Snape hadn't moved.

"You surely don't believe a word of Black's story?" Snape whispered, his eyes fixed on Dumbledore's face.

"I wish to speak to Harry and Hermione alone," Dumbledore repeated.

Snape took a step toward Dumbledore. "Sirius Black showed he was capable of murder at the age of sixteen," he breathed. "You haven't forgotten that, Headmaster? You haven't forgotten that he once tried to kill me?"

"My memory is as good as it ever was, Severus," said Dumbledore quietly. Snape turned on his heel and marched through the door Fudge was still holding. It closed behind them, and Dumbledore turned to Harry and Hermione. They both burst into speech at the same time.

"Professor, Black's telling the truth - we saw Pettigrew-"

"-he escaped when Professor Lupin turned into a werewolf-"

"-he's a rat-"

"-Pettigrew's front paw, I mean, finger, he cut it off-"

"-Pettigrew attacked Ron, it wasn't Sirius-"

But Dumbledore held up his hand to stem the flood of explanations.

"We must have some privacy for this conversation," he said, walked over to the two, drew the bedside curtains, said the silencing spell and Maddy heard nothing else. She shared a confused look with Bella, who sat down at the foot of Maddy's bed.

A few minutes later the curtain open and Dumbledore walked over to the door. "I am going to lock you in. It is-" he consulted his watch, "five minutes to midnight. Miss Granger, three turns should do it. Good luck."

"Good luck?" Harry repeated as the door closed behind the headmaster.

"What?" Maddy asked. "What the Hades is going on?"

"I have no clue," Harry said. "Three turns? What's he talking about? What are we supposed to do?"

But Hermione was fumbling with the neck of her robes, pulling from beneath them a very long, very fine gold chain and Maddy could just make out some very familiar symbols.

"Harry, come here," she said urgently. " _Quick_!"

As Harry walked over to Hermione Bella jumped up from the bed and got to her first and snatched the necklace away, pulling it over Hermione's head.

"Bella!" Hermione exclaimed. "We need to use that!"

But her face was dead-set determined, she shook her head and threw it over to Maddy, who easily caught it, and then Bella sent her a meaningful look.

Maddy looked over it and realized what the familiar symbols were, they were symbols of time, Kronos' symbols.

"You can't use this." She said flatly.

"Why not?" Hermione asked. "What has gotten into you two."

"These are symbols of Kronos-" the room got a little colder "-the titan of time," Maddy said as if what that meant was obvious before realizing that they wouldn't know what that means. "The titan of time is _evil_ , he was chopped into thousands of bits back in the time of Ancient Greece and banished into Tartarus, about five years ago people began to try to bring him back, they succeeded over the summer, we fought them over the summer and Bella and her camp fought the Roman counterpart. He's back in Tartarus now but it's only been nine months, _nine months_ , using this could strengthen him enough to find another person to do his bidding and to come back _again_. You _cannot_ use this."

"Maddy, I've been using the time turner all year to get to class, wizards have been using them for decades now, I'm sure that it's safe," Hermione said calmly.

"I can't risk that, that war caused so much pain, Hermione. I refuse-"

"Do you really think that wizards would continue to use them if they were dangerous?"

"The wizarding world and gods are two separate things, but-"

"Maddy, you were able to stop him before, if this does anything you'll be able to handle it again, we're talking about saving an innocent man and an innocent hippogriff."

"Alright, fine, if you want to destroy all of western civilization then go ahead," Maddy threw the necklace at Hermione and Bella made a terrified look. Hermione quickly threw the chain over both her and Harry's heads and turned the necklace three time, disappearing. And in that moment, they burst through the hospital wing doors.

A moment later, Madam Pomfrey came striding back out of her office.

"Did I hear the headmaster leaving? Am I allowed to look after my patients now?"

She was in a very bad mood. Madam Pomfrey stood over all of them, making sure they ate their chocolate.

As they all took a fourth piece of chocolate from Madam Pomfrey, they heard a distant roar of fury echoing from somewhere above them.

"What was that?" said Madam Pomfrey in alarm. Now they could hear angry voices, growing louder and louder. Madam Pomfrey was staring at the door.

"Really, they'll wake everybody up! What do they think they're doing?"

"He must have Disapparated, Severus. We should have left somebody in the room with him. When this gets out-"

"HE DIDN'T DISAPPARATE!" Snape roared, now very close at hand. "YOU CAN'T APPARATE OR DISAPPARATE INSIDE THIS CASTLE! THIS - HAS - SOMETHING - TO - DO - WITH - POTTER!"

"Severus, be reasonable, Harry has been locked up-"

_BAM._

The door of the hospital wing burst open.

Fudge, Snape, and Dumbledore came striding into the ward. Dumbledore alone looked calm. Indeed, he looked as though he was quite enjoying himself. Fudge appeared angry. But Snape was beside himself.

"OUT WITH IT, POTTER!" he bellowed. "WHAT DID YOU DO?"

"Professor Snape!" shrieked Madam Pomfrey. "Control yourself!"

"See here, Snape, be reasonable," said Fudge. "This door's been locked, we just saw-"

"THEY HELPED HIM ESCAPE, I KNOW IT!" Snape howled, pointing at Harry, Bella, Maddy and Hermione. His face was twisted; spit was flying from his mouth.

"Calm down, man!" Fudge barked. "You're talking nonsense!"

"YOU DON'T KNOW POTTER!" shrieked Snape. "HE DID IT, I KNOW HE DID IT-"

"Yes," Maddy said dryly, "he went and freed Black while we all watched him sit here and eat chocolate, that is _exactly_ what happened."

Snape was about to scream some more at Maddy but he didn't get the chance to.

"That will do, Severus," said Dumbledore quietly. "Think about what you are saying. This door has been locked since I left the ward ten minutes ago. Madam Pomfrey, have these students left their beds?"

"Of course not!" said Madam Pomfrey, bristling. "I would have heard them!"

"Well, there you have it, Severus," said Dumbledore calmly. "Unless you are suggesting that they are able to be in two places at once, I'm afraid I don't see any point in troubling them further."

Snape stood there, seething, staring from Fudge, who looked thoroughly shocked at his behavior, to Dumbledore, whose eyes were twinkling behind his glasses. Snape whirled about, robes swishing behind him, and stormed out of the ward.

"Fellow seems quite unbalanced," said Fudge, staring after him. "I'd watch out for him if I were you, Dumbledore."

"Oh, he's not unbalanced," said Dumbledore quietly. "He's just suffered a severe disappointment."

"He's not the only one!" puffed Fudge. "The Daily Prophet's going to have a field day! We had Black cornered and he slipped through our fingers yet again! All it needs now is for the story of that hippogriff 's escape to get out, and I'll be a laughingstock! Well... I'd better go and notify the Ministry..."

"And the dementors?" said Dumbledore. "They'll be removed from the school, I trust?"

"Oh yes, they'll have to go," said Fudge, running his fingers distractedly through his hair. "Never dreamed they'd attempt to administer the Kiss on an innocent boy... Completely out of control... no, I'll have them packed off back to Azkaban tonight... Perhaps we should think about dragons at the school entrance..."

"Hagrid would like that," said Dumbledore, smiling at Harry and Hermione. As he and Fudge left the dormitory, Madam Pomfrey hurried to the door and locked it again. Muttering angrily to herself, she headed back to her office.

There was a low moan from the other end of the ward. Ron had woken up. They could see him sitting up, rubbing his head, looking around.

"What-what happened?" he groaned. "Harry? Why are we in here? Where's Sirius? Where's Lupin? What's going on?"

Harry and Hermione looked at each other.

"You explain," said Harry, helping himself to some more chocolate.

Hermione then explained about what happened after he passed out, Maddy told him that she dragged him and Snape into the castle, and then Hermione told Ron, Maddy and Bella about what happened with the necklace, a time turner. She and Harry saved Buckbeak, flew it up to Sirius' window and he escaped on that. It was pretty cool, though Maddy was still worried about the potential ramifications of using the device.

* * *

When Harry, Ron, Maddy, Bella and Hermione left the hospital wing at noon the next day, it was to find an almost deserted castle. The sweltering heat and the end of the exams meant that everyone was taking full advantage of another Hogsmeade visit. Neither Ron nor Hermione felt like going, however, so they and Harry, Maddy and Bella wandered onto the grounds, still talking about the extraordinary events of the previous night and wondering where Sirius and Buckbeak were now.

As they were sitting by the lake, watching the squid lazily flop it's tentacles around Hagrid came by.

"Know I shouldn' feel happy, after wha' happened las' night," he said. "I mean, Black escapin' again, an' everythin', but guess what?"

"What?" they said, pretending to look curious.

"Beaky! He escaped! He's free! Bin celebratin' all night!"

"That's wonderful!" said Hermione, giving Ron a reproving look because he looked as though he was close to laughing.

"Yeah... can't've tied him up properly," said Hagrid, gazing happily out over the grounds. "I was worried this mornin', mind... thought he mighta met Professor Lupin on the grounds, but Lupin says he never ate anythin' las' night..."

"What?" said Harry quickly.

"Blimey, haven' yeh heard?" said Hagrid, his smile fading a little. He lowered his voice, even though there was nobody in sight. "Er, Snape told all the Slytherins this mornin'... Thought everyone'd know by now... Professor Lupin's a werewolf, see. An' he was loose on the grounds las' night... He's packin' now, o' course."

"He's packing?" said Harry, alarmed. "Why?"

"Leavin', isn' he?" said Hagrid, looking surprised that Harry had to ask. "Resigned firs' thing this mornin'. Says he can't risk it happenin' again."

Harry scrambled to his feet.

"I'm going to see him," he said to the others.

"But if he's resigned-"

"-doesn't sound like there's anything we can do-"

"I don't care. I still want to see him. I'll meet you back here."

* * *

About ten minutes after Harry left Elliot came strolling down to the lake, said she would not apologize for the previous night and she demanded to know exactly what happened after she ran. Hermione told the story since Hagrid had also left to go work on his pumpkin patch.

"So, where were you?" Bella, having recovered her voice, asked.

"Hogsmeade with Seo. Oh, do you know what Snape did this morning?" Elliot asked.. "He actually told all of us that Lupin's a werewolf and that he was roaming around last night, all I can say is that's a fucking dick move, my god, who does that?"

"Yeah, we heard," Ron grimaced. "And that _is_ a dick move."

* * *

Nobody at Hogwarts now knew the truth of what had happened the night that Sirius, Buckbeak, and Pettigrew had vanished except Harry, Ron, Hermione, Bella, Maddy, Elliot and Professor Dumbledore. As the end of term approached, Maddy heard many different theories about what had really happened, but none of them came close to the truth. Malfoy was furious about Buckbeak. He was convinced that Hagrid had found a way of smuggling the hippogriff to safety, and seemed outraged that he and his father had been outwitted by a gamekeeper. Percy Weasley, meanwhile, had much to say on the subject of Sirius's escape.

"If I manage to get into the Ministry, I'll have a lot of proposals to make about Magical Law Enforcement!" he told the only person who would listen, his girlfriend, Penelope Clearwater.

"Wonder what they'll give us next year?" said Seamus Finnigan gloomily after Lupin announced his resignation.

"Maybe a vampire," suggested Dean Thomas hopefully.

The exam results came out on the last day of term. Harry, Ron, Elliot and Hermione had passed every subject. Maddy had failed Potions and Bella had just barely missed passing History of Magic.

"I don't understand how Binns can even grade our exams, he is a ghost, he can't pick them up? How does it _work_?" She had exclaimed upon getting her results.

Percy had got his top-grade N.E.W.T.s; Fred and George had scraped a handful of O.W.L.s each. Gryffindor House, meanwhile, largely thanks to their apparently spectacular performance in the Quidditch Cup, had won the House championship for the third year running. This meant that the end of term feast took place amid decorations of scarlet and gold, and that the Gryffindor table was the noisiest of the lot, as everybody celebrated.

* * *

As the Hogwarts Express pulled out of the station the next morning, Hermione gave the others some surprising news.

"I went to see Professor McGonagall this morning, just before breakfast. I've decided to drop Muggle Studies."

"But you passed your exam with three hundred and twenty percent!" said Ron.

"I know," sighed Hermione, "but I can't stand another year like this one. That Time-Turner, it was driving me mad. I've handed it in. Without Muggle Studies and Divination, I'll be able to have a normal schedule again."

"Now that's what I call sensible," Bella decided. "But still, if Saturn comes back I'm blaming you, Hermione and damn it, if only his name was Uranus, I could have made an amazing joke there, it probably would have costed my life but it still would have been excellent."

"Nothing is ever called Uranus when it should be," Elliot said.

"I still can't believe you didn't tell us about the time turner," said Ron grumpily. "We're supposed to be your friends."

"I promised I wouldn't tell anyone," said Hermione severely. She looked around at Harry, who was watching Hogwarts disappear from view behind a mountain. "Oh, cheer up, Harry!" said Hermione sadly.

"I'm okay," said Harry quickly. "Just thinking about the holidays."

"Yeah, I've been thinking about them too," said Ron. "Harry, you've got to come and stay with us. I'll fix it up with Mum and Dad, then I'll call you. I know how to use a fellytone now-" Bella snorted.

"A _telephone_ , Ron," said Hermione. "Honestly, _you_ should take Muggle Studies next year..."

Ron ignored her.

"It's the Quidditch World Cup this summer! How about it, Harry? Come and stay, and we'll go and see it! Dad can usually get tickets from work."

"Yeah... I bet the Dursleys'd be pleased to let me come... especially after what I did to Aunt Marge..."

"Wait, what happened? I never heard this," Maddy said.

"He blew her up," Bella said.

"You blew up your aunt?"

"Yeah," Harry said. "Like a balloon."

" _Nice_."

"Harry," said Hermione suddenly, peering over his shoulder in mid afternoon.

"What's that thing outside your window?"

Maddy turned to look outside. Something very small and grey was bobbing in and out of sight beyond the glass. Harry stood up then opened up the window. A tiny owl flew in, holding a letter twice it's size. The owl dropped its letter onto Harry's seat and began zooming around their compartment, apparently very pleased with itself for accomplishing its task. Hedwig clicked her beak with a sort of dignified disapproval and Melinoe was keeping it away from her my snapping her beak at it whenever it got too close. Crookshanks sat up in his seat, following the owl with his great yellow eyes. Ron, noticing this, snatched the owl safely out of harm's way.

Harry's eyes lit up when he opened up the letter and Bella, Hermione and Ron demanded that it be read aloud.

_Dear Harry,_

_I hope this finds you before you reach your aunt and uncle. I don't know whether they're used to owl post. Buckbeak and I are in hiding. I won't tell you where, in case this owl falls into the wrong hands. I have some doubt about his reliability, but he is the best I could find, and he did seem eager for the job._

_I believe the dementors are still searching for me, but they haven't a hope of finding me here. I am planning to allow some Muggles to glimpse me soon, a long way from Hogwarts, so that the security on the castle will be lifted._

_There is something I never got around to telling you during our brief meeting. It was I who sent you the Firebolt-_

"Ha!" said Hermione triumphantly. "See! I told you it was from him!"

"Yes, but he hadn't jinxed it, had he?" said Ron. "Ouch!" The tiny owl, now hooting happily in his hand, had nibbled one of his fingers in what it seemed to think was an affectionate way.

_Crookshanks took the order to the Owl Office for me. I used your name but told them to take the gold from my own Gringotts vault. Please consider it as thirteen birthdays' worth of presents from your godfather._

_I would also like to apologize for the fright I think I gave you that night last year when you left your uncle's house. I had only hoped to get a glimpse of you before starting my journey north, but I think the sight of me alarmed you._

_I am enclosing something else for you, which I think will make your next year at Hogwarts more enjoyable._

_If ever you need me, send word. Your owl will find me._

_I'll write again soon._

_Sirius_

Harry held up a signed Hogsmeade slip and cheerfully said, "That'll be enough for Dumbledore... Hang on, there's a P.S..."

_I thought your friend Ron might like to keep this owl, as it's my fault he no longer has a rat._

Ron's eyes widened. The minute owl was still hooting excitedly.

"Keep him?" he said uncertainly. He looked closely at the owl for a moment; then, to Harry's and Hermione's great surprise, he held him out for Crookshanks to sniff. "What d'you reckon?" Ron asked the cat. "Definitely an owl?"

Crookshanks purred.

"That's good enough for me," said Ron happily. "He's mine."


End file.
